Rockets Visit the Motor City for Matchup with Pistons
The Skeleton Crew. Switching Roles. Road Revival?
The very-shorthanded Houston Rockets visit the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night in a battle of last place teams in each conference. The Rockets are severely undermanned heading into this Motor City Matchup. Houston will be without their three best players, Kevin Porter Jr., Jalen Green, and Alperen Sengun. KPJ has missed several games now, but Green and Sengun are new additions to the injury report. The Rockets basically have a skeleton crew on their roster as everyone will likely get playing time tonight, and it will be interesting to see who makes up the starting lineup tonight for Houston.
Stephen Silas is out of town at a memorial service for his father Paul Silas, who passed away late last year. That means John Lucas will be taking over the Head Coaching reigns for tonight’s game. The last time Lucas was the Acting Head Coach, the Rockets won a in a triumphant and emotional fashion. Hopefully, they can repeat the same against a Pistons team that is much less talented than the teams Houston has recently faced. The Rockets would love to get a revitalizing win on the road before returning home for a couple of games. Is a road revival in store tonight for Houston?
The highly-touted Cade Cunningham is out for the season for the Pistons. The number one overall pick in Jalen Green’s draft class has had injury issues since he’s entered the league. Regardless, Detroit still has weapons Houston needs to be cautious about. Don’t be surprised is rookie Jalen Duren has a monster night in the paint for the Pistons. After a slow start, Duren is having a breakout rookie season, although he’s rarely talked about due to being on a last-place Detroit squad. Their other rookie, Jaden Ivey, is startling to come into form after a struggling start to his campaign. And Saddiq Bey, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Alec Burks have all had big games against the Rockets in the past. Tonight won’t be easy by any means for Houston, especially with an extremely limited roster. But that also means plenty of minutes for the Goon Squad and the energizers like Jae’Sean Tate. So expect the Rockets to play hard tonight… the question is can they maintain the consistency for four quarters without their Big Three? We’ll find out the answer on Saturday night.
Little Caesars Arena: Detroit, Michigan
Jersey Colors:
Houston Rockets (11-38): White
Detroit Pistons (13-37): Teal
Tip-Off: 6:00 PM CT
TV: AT&T Sportsnet SW, NBA League Pass