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When the All Star Break came about, someone from The Dream Shake tweeted this:
10 of the 15 games out of the All Star break come against teams under .500
— #PocketRockets (@DreamShakeSBN) February 12, 2020
The responses were quick and unsurprising.
For most teams in our position, that’s great news. Our team loves to play down to competition though, so I just see that a likely month of underperforming. Really hope we can turn it on and take advantage. We have one of the best post ASW schedules
— Aaron (@tharpey) February 12, 2020
So we going 5 and 10... pic.twitter.com/OgasYUOdeA
— frank-o-tanko (@ftank58) February 12, 2020
Except we struggle against those teams too often.
— Tim H (@Tim_in_the_CYP) February 12, 2020
Houston has historically struggled to blow out bad teams, and this season has been more of the same. On the flip side, the Rockets came out of the All Star Break and crushed a Golden State team that had beaten them earlier this season. The early returns of the Pocket Rockets lineup continue to show real promise, with Houston going 8-2 in games where they primarily play the small lineup.
The New York Knicks haven’t had a great season. After dreams of nabbing Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Zion Williamson over the summer, the Knicks came up empty with RJ Barrett and a bunch of power forwards. One of those is a post player that has had his way with the Rockets in the past: Julius Randle. Houston has beaten some good big men during these last ten games, but only the Lakers had a player with a back-to-the-basket game.
This is a game Houston should win, and it will show some real improvement if they are able to start handling teams with losing records as we know they are capable of doing.
Tip-off is 7pm CT