The Houston Rockets are taking on the San Antonio Spurs in their latest preseason matchup and with just two games left on the schedule, Dwight Howard and company are ready to start the regular season, but before that they will ball on Thursday night at the AT&T Center in a game that will air on TNT starting up the broadcast at 8:00 pm ET.
Dwight Howard signed with the team to win championships and teaming up with James Harden may net him one, but it still remains to be seen how Howard will fit into the offense and with Harden turning into a superstar, things could run through him more than Dwight. Last season he posted double-double numbers despite being injured and not totally 100 percent and now he gets the chance to start fresh, but by switching teams three times before he really gets into his career, he may end up tarnishing his legacy. LeBron's move was a bit different and now that he has championships that really shouldn't matter and Dwight now has the mantle that he once had as the great player looking for a title.
Click here for the TNT Overtime stream coverage of the game or on this link for the NBA.com official preseason coverage.
The tough thing about Dwight though, he really isn't the type of player that can lead his team to a championship. He is no Kobe or LeBron and while he will give the Rockets a massive upgrade up front, it will take plenty more to win a title, including strong play from both Harden and Jeremy Lin as well as a big effort from Chandler Parsons, Omer Asik and Terrence Jones. Asik has the chance to be one of the best centers in the league and he was that last season, but now the team must balance playing him and Howard and Kevin McHale may use them at the same time in some situations. Asik put up great numbers last season and they were career best across the board and now the team must see if they can put it all together to win a title.
The west will not be an easy conference to win, as the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies might all be better than the Rockets and on top of that there are talented teams in the Lakers and Pelicans as well as the upstart Golden State Warriors to deal with. The Rockets are coming into the season after winning 45 games last year and they made it in as the eighth playoff spot, facing off against the OKC Thunder and after losing that playoff matchup they expect to be in one of the higher seeds this season. The team comes into the game against the Spurs after defeating the Mavericks in their last preseason game and they will play the Grizzlies next on the schedule.
The Rockets ranked second in the NBA last season in scoring with over 105 points per game and while they were in the top 10 in both rebounding and assists per game, the team also allowed over 100 points per night, ranked 28th in the NBA. One thing Howard brings to Houston is a polished defensive pedigree and he should help bring that down at least to the middle part of the league and with Harden and Asik, the team should also have no problem remaining in the top 10 in rebounding. Howard will get to battle with the likes of Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Tim Duncan, Chris Kaman, Derrick Favors and Blake Griffin out west and the team should be in contention for one of the top half spots in the playoffs this year and they could end up challenging the Heat for the NBA title.
