Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers game preview

The news around the Houston Rockets is mostly about the massive four-team trade that sent away Clint Capela, Nene, and Gerald Green and netted Houston a true 3-and-D wing in Robert Covington.

Jonathan Feigen says that Covington and Jordan Bell will be available for the Rockets tonight, but any minutes for either will probably be limited. That means that Houston will still be using the same lineup they have been using for the past week or so. That has worked against teams without a ton of size, but the Los Angeles Lakers do have a ton of size.

At their longest, the Lakers can run Avery Bradley, Danny Green, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and JaVale McGee as a starting lineup. Off their bench come Rajon Rondo, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, and Dwight Howard. That’s a bunch of long, athletic players at every position with backups that don’t give you a reprieve. The Lakers come at you for 48 minutes and that kind of relentless size and presence is a death sentence for most teams, including a Rockets team with only one player above 6-6 that might see minutes.

The game is going to be ugly for the Rockets. Houston’s best chance is to hope the Lakers are on the other side of the playoff bracket and for someone to upset them. The Rockets need James Harden and Russell Westbrook to play at MVP levels for them to have any chance in this game.

Tip-off is at 9:30pm CT on TNT