Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Clippers game preview

Houston tries to break the West Coast Curse at the Intuit Dome

There’s just something about the Ime Udoka-coached Houston Rockets and early season West Coast road trips.

The Rockets are a loss away from duplicating last year’s feat, which involved getting swept in those three games, two in heartbreaking fashion. This trip has been frustrating in other ways, as the Sacramento Kings had an offensive explosion (then promptly lost their next game when they came back to Earth) and the Warriors got a career night from Jonathan Kuminga (who promptly came back to Earth with 13 points on 15 shots in their next game, a loss).

Right now, the juju is just off for Houston. A team that has prided itself on the defensive end has looked downright bad on it lately. Several Kings and Warriors busted of slumps, in part due to open looks. There were times earlier this year when Houston’s defense was getting lucky with opponents missing open looks from deep. The regression is starting to hit.

Since getting swept by the Rockets over two games in mid-November, the Los Angeles Clippers are 8-3. The other important aspect tonight is that Houston can wrap up the tiebreaker tonight with a win. The Clippers are sure to be in the mix when the playoffs come around, especially if Kawhi Leonard gives them a decent number of games.

We’ll be in the Playback room tonight, so you should come join to watch the Rockets and talk about the game. Remember, we get a handful of VIP passes that we give out to anyone who wants to watch the game. No League Pass necessary!

Tip-off

8pm CT

How To Watch

Space City Home Network

Injury Report

Tari Eason: GTD

Clippers

Kawhi Leonard: OUT

Kobe Brown: OUT

Terance Mann: OUT

Norman Powell: GTD

Kevin Porter Jr.: GTD

The Line (as of this post)

N/A

Check here for updates

Looking ahead because we can

Wednesday night in Houston against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Cup