Houston Rockets look to win fourth straight without Chris Paul

The Houston Rockets will look to stay hot and continue their recent stretch of games when they visit the New Orleans Pelicans tonight.

The Houston Rockets are rolling, winning their last three games and eight of their last nine. They are finally starting to look how they did last season when they pushed the Golden State Warriors to seven games in the Western Conference Finals.

They have beaten some formidable foes during this three-game streak without their star point guard Chris Paul. San Antonio was one of the hottest teams in the league, but Houston still prevailed. Oklahoma City has a dynamic duo that has them among the tops in the West, no problem there on Christmas Day. Boston was considered an East favorite coming into the season, the Rockets still took care of business a couple nights ago.

Now, they look for some revenge on the team that started the horrible beginning to the year on Opening Night. The Pelicans beatdown the Rockets to begin the year, 131-112. New Orleans looked incredible that night and had a great first couple of weeks.

It’s kind of been downhill since then for the Pellies. They now sit at 16-20 and the main news surrounding them is whether or not Anthony Davis is going to be traded. For a team with quite a bit of talent, they are failing to live up to their expectations set after a solid playoffs last season. Was Rajon Rondo that valuable?

Harden vs. Davis

It’s also fun to watch James Harden and Anthony Davis, two of the best players in the league, go at it. They are the top two scorers in the league (Harden No. 1, Davis No. 2) and are both widely considered to be top-6 players in the NBA.

The two were in the MVP conversation all last season, with Harden eventually prevailing. With the kind of numbers that Davis is putting up, if the Pelicans were better, that would likely be the same case this season. Unfortunately for him, the team is currently out of contention, as is he for the Most Valuable Player. If he can orchestrate another turnaround like last season, he may find himself back there, though.

James Harden has been absolutely magnificent during this streak of games for the Rockets. He’s averaging near 40 points a game during it and carrying the team back to where it should be, with or without Chris Paul. What does he have in store tonight?