Rockets vs. Trail Blazers - game thread

The Houston Rockets are heading into a tough stretch of four straight games against difficult teams, starting off tonight against the Portland Trail Blazers. Though when you’re playing as poorly as the Rockets are right now, every game is a difficult one.

Head coach Mike D’Antoni is making a minor lineup move, starting Eric Gordon in place of James Ennis in search of a spark.

EG also has been complaining about his role and being unhappy, so this could be a chance to help spark Gordon from his season-long funk and maybe kick-start Houston’s offense. Despite being ranked in the league’s top 10 in offensive rating, we have yet to see them truly dominant scoring the ball, so maybe it happens tonight.

But the better bet is that this team continues to struggle until they can figure out something defensively. I’d personally like to see them switch a little bit less, because the personnel has shown they’re not quite suited to switching almost all the time, but I’m not sure if that’s a realistic wish. D’Antoni’s been short on any true adjustments to scheme on either side of the ball.

I’d love nothing more than a win tonight, but until the Rockets can prove otherwise, we can’t really trust them to do so. I’m with AK from today’s preview... it might be a tough night for heroes in red.