Houston Rockets vs. Miami Heat game preview

Update: Houston will be without Terrence Jones, Dwight Howard, and Donatas Motiejunas (again) tonight. They did sign Chuck Hayes, though.

The Miami Heat spent most of last season hit with injuries. Dwyane Wade missed 20 games, Chris Bosh missed 38, and Josh McRoberts missed 65. So the first season after LeBron James left the Heat was derailed before the team could put together their studly starting 5.

Now, the Heat have their formidable fivesome of Goran Dragic, Wade, Luol Deng, Bosh, and Hassan Whiteside. That's a group with plenty of options on offense and plenty of quick hands and size on defense.

The Heat also have a solid bench with Mario Chalmers, Justise Winslow, Amar'e Stoudemire, and McRoberts.

For the Rockets, we all know what needs to happen: better shooting, better defense rotations, better rebounding, better hustling, better player rotations, and basically better everything.

Houston needs Harden to regain his ultimate form and for the rest of the Rockets to start shooting well from deep again. Houston's overall point differential is -40 this season, so it's not like they can be much worse tonight.

Sometimes road games help to focus a team. Instead of trying to pump up a crowd with big plays you can just focus on making the right play. Miami was the site of Houston's first big win last season so they will try to replicate that experience when they head to South Florida.

Tip-off is at 5pm CST.

Prediction: Rockets lose third straight game to open the season.

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