Houston Rockets vs. Denver Nuggets game preview

Houston's schedule this month has been weird. The Rockets have been playing a lot of 3-games-in-4-nights followed by 3 days off. It's odd and makes it seem like only half of the week is spent actually playing. In reality, the Rockets are probably using the days off to rest and look ahead to their next games. In terms of the time off and allowed focus, it's kind of similar to playoff scheduling.

The Rockets are 4-1 since the calendar rolled over to December. Much of the West is finally having to play the good teams in the East and the other playoff contenders of the West this month. So while Houston grabbed early headlines with their easy schedule, the Rockets haven't had the easiest schedule for a while now and likewise will have a tough stretch of games.

The Rockets start a home-and-home against the Nuggets tonight, which is odd for Denver since they actually play the Spurs tomorrow before heading home to play Houston again. The Nuggets have already played three home-and-home series this season and have one more in April.

Tonight, Houston will be hoping to get back Dwight Howard and Isaiah Canaan. That leaves only Terrence Jones, Kostas Papanikolaou, and Francisco Garcia still on the injured list.

Consider this your arena to discuss the first night of the two games. We'll have something else go up before the Wednesday game as well.

Tip-off is at 7pm CST.

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