Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Clippers game preview
There are some simple facts that we should go over:
- The Houston Rockets finished eleventh in the Western Conference last season.
- One of the teams that finished above them was the Los Angeles Clippers.
- The Clippers lost Paul George to free agency and Kawhi Leonard to injury.
- Houston is playing the Clippers tonight and Friday night. Both games are at Toyota Center.
If the Rockets are serious about being a play-in or playoff team, these are games they have to win. The Clippers will be better once Kawhi returns, and it’s going to be important for Houston to have a couple of wins over them. The third meeting between these teams is December 8, so it’s entirely possible for one team to win the season series and own the tiebreaker before Leonard suits up for a game.
The Rockets must win at least one of these two games, and really the goal needs to be to win them both. Obviously, Fred VanVleet’s status is a huge question mark going into this game. However, after the offensive nightmare that was the Wizards game, it’s clear that the Rockets need FVV, even if his shooting this season has been suboptimal. It doesn’t matter that the Rockets won the game. In the end, it’s the little things that will become big things. And while a bad offensive performance can still be good enough to beat the Wizards, it certainly won’t be good enough to win games against the more competent NBA teams (of which the Clippers are most assuredly one).
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