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Tonight continues one of the craziest streaks in all of sports.
The last 16 times that Houston and Toronto have met, the home team has won. Those games have included some really good Rockets teams and some pretty bad Rockets teams. Still, no matter the discrepancy in talent the formula has held true. One consistency has been that usually the games in Toronto during that stretch have come at odd times, usually noon. Tonight's game is at 5:30 for some reason.
This season, the Raptors are not worse than the Rockets. In fact, they are at least a head above them. Toronto is 41-19 and only 2.5 games back from Cleveland for the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Every game is vital for them.
Can we do some real talk here for a second? I am sick and tired of hearing about how Houston shouldn't have traded Kyle Lowry. I hear it all the time. "Could you imagine Lowry and Harden in the backcourt together?!" No, because if Houston hadn't traded Lowry to Toronto, they never would have had the first round pick to trade to the Thunder to get Harden. The Rockets did try to sign Lowry as a free agent two summers ago, but otherwise that pairing has never been possible. So please spare me the "What if?"
Tip-off is at 5:30pm CST.
Rockets vs Raptors coverage