Rockets Welcome Bucks to Close Out Home-Stand
Part 2. Imperfect Storm. Containing the Duo.
The Rockets finish their seven game home-stand with a battle against the Milwaukee Bucks. Houston is coming off a disappointing blowout loss, 122-95, to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night at Toyota Center. Saturday night’s contest marks the second in a pair of tough-back-to-back games for this young Houston team. The Rockets are aiming to bounce back against one the best team’s in the NBA in the Bucks. Milwaukee is 25-10, good for second place in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks are coming off an exciting win over Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night. Houston will try and make this Texas-stop rougher for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee tonight. The Bucks won the previous matchup between these two teams, 128-119, in Milwaukee back on December 17th.
Despite being in the friendly confines of Toyota Center, tonight’s matchup is an imperfect storm for these young Rockets. The Bucks are the more rested team after having yesterday off. Houston will aim to give a better effort, and prevent another blowout loss on Saturday night, but the squad remains short-handed. Tari Eason will miss his third consecutive game with a lower leg injury, and Dillon Brooks remains sidelined with an oblique injury. Neither injury is deemed serious, but this duo in particular makes the Rockets so much better defensively. Without Eason and Brooks, Houston’s defense has taken a slide. The squad needs Aaron Holiday, Cam Whitmore, Amen Thompson, and others to step up and contribute if they want any chance to beat Milwaukee tonight.
The key to tonight’s game is simple: preventing Damian Lillard and Giannis from exploding for 60 or more points. Houston has to contain the NBA’s most potent duo in order to cap off this home-stand with a victory. Giannis and Dame combined to light up the Rockets for 65 points in the first matchup. Houston needs to aim to keep them below 50 points combined, which will give them a shot to pull off the upset. Hopefully, the Rockets can make this contest more competitive than their loss on Friday night. Houston never really threatened to overtake Minnesota once the Timberwolves had the lead, and it resulted in a blowout loss at home. Luckily, those have been rare this season. Other than last night versus Minnesota and the game against the Phoenix Suns, these Rockets have shown they don’t let teams blow them out in their house. Expect the squad to bounce back with better effort against a better team tonight… whether it results in a victory remains to be seen.
Toyota Center: Houston, Texas
Jersey Colors:
Milwaukee Bucks (25-10): Green
Houston Rockets (17-16): “City Edition” White
Tip-Off: 7:00 PM CT
TV: Space City Home Network, NBA League Pass