The healthy Houston Rockets look to take down the T-Wolves
By Michael Knight
The Houston Rockets are back to their winning ways and are just about completely healthy. They will look to keep it going tonight against the Timberwolves.
The Houston Rockets are starting to get back on track after starting the season very inconsistently. They have won back-to-back games against the Spurs and Bulls and are looking for more tonight as they face a team they have talked to quite a bit recently, the Timberwolves.
One main catalyst for change for the Rockets has been the play of Eric Gordon. He has gotten back to the way he can truly play, averaging 27 points a game on 43% shooting from downtown over his last three games. With trade talks involving him pretty much over, he has regained his form. He will try to keep that going against a team Houston was looking to trade him to, Minnesota.
The Wolves have looked a bit different in recent weeks. They traded away Jimmy Butler and have actually won 7 of their last 10 games without him. The reemergence of Derrick Rose has been crazy to watch, he is dominating the game off the bench for them. He has somehow become an elite shooter, making nearly 50% of his shots from deep.
Let’s look at the starting lineups for each team:
Starting 5s
Rockets
Chris Paul/James Harden/James Ennis/P.J. Tucker/Clint Capela
Timberwolves
Jeff Teague/Andrew Wiggins/Robert Covington/Taj Gibson/Karl-Anthony Towns
Keys to Victory
The Rockets cannot take the T-Wolves lightly. As I spoke of earlier, Derrick Rose has been dominating teams and even has a 50-point game this season. CP3 and others will need to do a good job of guarding him tonight.
Clint Capela gets to match up with his son, Karl-Anthony Towns. All jokes aside, Capela always plays well against KAT and hopefully, tonight is no different. He has a way of stepping up against the best centers in the league, so let’s hope for another huge performance from him.
While the Wolves don’t have as much star power without Jimmy, they are certainly much deeper of a team. Robert Covington and Dario Saric, who they received in the deal, fit in well with how they play and make the team all-around dangerous. Covington will likely be tasked with guarding Harden tonight.
Speaking of Harden, he has been playing at an MVP-level recently. Over his last 8 games, the Beard is averaging a crazy 35.3 points and 10.6 assists a night for the Rockets. Can he keep it going tonight?
Be sure to tune into AT&T SportsNet SW tonight at 7:00 p.m. CT for the game!