Rockets vs. Pacers game preview: Houston looks to get back to .500 against red-hot Indiana

Once again, it feels imperative that we start with the injury report. The Rockets have not played a game with 100% of their expected roster, and that trend continues tonight. Danuel House Jr. is having back issues so he will miss his second consecutive game. Ben McLemore and K.J. Martin are cleared to play, but will not travel with the team to Indiana in order to improve conditioning. That information is per Jonathan Feigen. That means more minutes for Jae’Sean Tate and David Nwaba.

The Indiana Pacers are missing T.J. Warren, who is out with a stress fracture. That’s a huge loss after Warren took the Bubble by storm with a scoring explosion.

The Pacers are 5-2 early in the season with both losses being competitive. New coach Nate Bjorkgren is having a slightly better start to his career than poor Stephen Silas. Indiana’s most recent game saw them erase a 10-point deficit in a little over two minutes to force overtime against the New Orleans Pelicans. In the extra period, Malcolm Brogdon hit a funky floater in the final seconds to win the game for Indy.

Houston’s defense will get yet another test. Brogdon, Victor Oladipo, and Myles Turner are all great players, and the bench is more than capable. The Pacers have scorers everywhere, and Domantas Sabonis is playing like he wants a second consecutive All-Star selection. In typical AK fashion, I’m going to say that tonight’s game will almost certainly be a loss for Houston.

Tip-off is at 6pm CT on AT&T SportsNet Southwest