Houston Rockets vs. Indiana Pacers game preview

2014/15 NBA Season
(28-13)	@	(15-27)
January 19th, 2015
Toyota Center
4:30 PM CST
ROOT
Starting Lineups
Patrick Beverley	PG	C.J. Watson
James Harden	SG	Rodney Stuckey
Trevor Ariza	SF	Solomon Hill
Donatas Motiejunas	PF	David West
Dwight Howard	C	Roy Hibbert
Also see: Indy Cornrows (Twitter)

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Houston Rockets and Indiana Pacers tip off at 4:30 p.m. today at the Toyota Center.

The Rockets lost their defensive acumen in recent games surrendering 100+ points in three straight regulation games for the first time this season. Enter Pacers. The Indiana Pacers have faced more than their share of challenges in a Paul George-less season. None of those problems may be bigger than their inability to score. The Pacers rank 27th in scoring averaging only 97.9 points a game.

The Pacers best offensive option, George Hill, has only played in five games this season and is currently working his way back from a groin injury. The Pacers' leading scorer without George Hill is David West at just under 13 points a contest. That's less than 50 percent of James Harden's season average and the lowest team leader in the league.

The Rockets come into the contest with a day of rest after the Warriors ran Houston out of the building in the second half of Saturday night's game. The Rockets kept pace with the Warriors for much of the first half, but clocked in a listless and uninspired second half that sunk the night.

If the Rockets play their game, control their turnovers and make their open threes it puts the defensive minded Pacers in a bind. James Harden had an off night shooting 4-15 from the field against the Warriors even missing three free throw attempts.

These two teams will only play twice this season and haven't played since Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik took the court for Houston.