Houston Rockets vs. Boston Celtics game preview

After their first win of the season, the Houston Rockets begin what appears (on paper, at least) to be their toughest stretch of schedule for the entire season.

Houston plays six of their next eight games on the road (so after tonight, six of seven), and all eight of those games come against teams that have expectations of contending. Yes, you can snicker at the Los Angeles Lakers all you want, or remind me that the Dallas Mavericks looked as bad against the Atlanta Hawks as the OKC Thunder did against the Rockets.

Or, you could say that the Boston Celtics are 0-2 and got blown out of their own building against the rebuilding/retooling Toronto Raptors.

But to that, I’d say that the Celtics are hungry for a win and see an easy target in the Rockets. They know their bench has been outplayed in both games, but Houston’s bench is an amorphous blob at the moment since Stephen Silas is still trying to figure out what he has and what his rotations should look like.

Jaylen Brown is questionable tonight with a knee injury. If he can’t go, Jayson Tatum will take on more of a featured role and will try to drop 50.

It’s the basketball version of the ALCS, in which the Houston Astros knocked off the Boston Red Sox in 6 games to advance to the World Series. Hopefully the Rockets can continue Houston’s domination over Boston.

The game is on NBA TV, and begins a little earlier than normal.

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