Houston Rockets vs. Portland Trail Blazers game preview

Houston tries its luck in the NBA Cup against the Blazers

Last season, it was Houston’s first game against the Portland Trail Blazers, a home game incidentally, that was a big wake up call to Rockets fans that were starting to think about making the play-in.

The Rockets were 20-22, but the Golden State Warriors were 18-22 and there were a couple of teams ahead of Houston that appeared to be within reach. If the Rockets could have gone on a run, maybe they would be able to see meaningful games in the postseason.

Instead, the Rockets let the 12-31 Blazers hang around and then watched Portland proceed to drop 41 points on them in the third quarter. Anfernee Simons had quite the game, dropping 33 points. The box score says Simons went 13-20, but I can’t remember him missing a shot. The end of regulation and the beginning of overtime was a disaster. Let’s run it down because we’re masochists:

• Houston led 122-118 with 13 seconds left.
• 3.0 seconds left: Malcolm Brogdon 3.
• Aaron Holiday makes 2 free throws. Rockets up 3 with 1.1 seconds.
• Brogdon inbounds to Jerami Grant, who is purposefully NOT fouled by Fred VanVleet, and Grant banks in a prayer to send the game to overtime.
• The Blazers started the overtime by scoring on their first 3 possessions.
• From the 3 second mark of the fourth to the 3:11 mark of OT, the Blazers scored 13 points.
• That’s a 334-point pace over a 48 minute game.
• Yes, really.

It was a gut punch for the Rockets, and forced many of us, myself included, to reset expectations. The Rockets won the next three meetings with Portland, but sometimes a loss feels like more than one loss.

Tonight’s contest is Houston’s second game in the NBA Cup. If the team can snag win tonight, they would have a good chance to advance to the knockout round with one win out of their two road games (Minnesota and Sacramento). A loss tonight probably spells doom for Xiane’s dream of Alperen Sengun and Ime Udoka raising a falcon together. The Rockets and Blazers will play again tomorrow night in Houston, but it just counts as a regular game.

Also, if you’re getting tired of the whole “playing the same team back-to-back” thing, know that Houston has two more of these sorts of series. However, each of those (Cleveland and New Orleans) are the more traditional “home-and-home” variety where the venue changes between games, thankfully.

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

7pm CT

How To Watch

Space City Home Network

Injury Report

Rockets

Steven Adams: DTD

Blazers

Scoot Henderson: GTD

Anfernee Simons: GTD

Deandre Ayton: GTD

Matisse Thybulle: GTD

The Line (as of this post)

HOU -10.5

Check here for updates

Looking ahead because we can

Tomorrow night at home against the Blazers once again