The NBA Cup continues tonight when the Houston Rockets take on the Portland Trail Blazers at Toyota Center on the red court.
In Houston’s group (Group C), there have been three total Cup games so far, and each has been won by the home team (Blazers over Nuggets, Nuggets over Warriors, and Spurs over the Rockets). It’s entirely possible the home teams could win every game and the group could finish with five teams at 2-2 in group play. Then it would come down to point differential, which is the tiebreaker.
Moving onto the actual game itself, the Blazers have shrugged off a federal indictment of their head coach to become a giant killer. Portland is 6-5 with wins over the Warriors, Nuggets (in the Cup as mentioned earlier), and Lakers. They also hold the distinction of being the only team to have beaten the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder this season.
The Blazers are first in creating turnovers (opponent TOV%) and second in pace. That should tell you a lot about how they want to win, and as a Rockets fan it should terrify you. Houston’s biggest weakness so far this season has been turning the ball over (23rd in TOV%) and want to play slowly (27th in pace). If you’re looking for the positives, the Blazers are a below-average defensive rebounding team (22nd) and give up the most trips to the foul line per possession. The Rockets are tops in the league in offensive rebounding rate and fourth in getting to the line. So the story of the game will be Portland’s desire to turn over the Rockets against Houston’s attempts to grab offensive rebounds and get to the free throw line.
Tip-off
7pm CT
How To Watch
Space City Home Network
Injury Report
Rockets
Dorian Finney-Smith: OUT (ankle)
Blazers
Scoot Henderson: OUT
Blake Wesley: OUT
Matisse Thybulle: OUT
The Line (as of this post)
N/A
Check here for updates
Looking ahead because we can
Sunday night in Houston against the Orlando Magic
