Houston Rockets (10-25) vs. Denver Nuggets January 1st, 2022, 7pm CST

Location: Toyota Center, Houston, TX

TV: AT&T SportsNet

Radio: SportsTalk790

Online: Rockets App

Nuggets SB Nation Blog: Denver Stiffs

Projected Starting Lineups

Rockets: Kevin Porter Jr., Jalen Green, David Nwaba, Jae’Sean Tate, Daniel Theis

Nuggets: Nikola Jokic, Some Other Guys, but not literally a guy named Guy at least. Ok fine, Will Barton, Facundo Compazo, Aaron Gordon, Austin Rivers

So. It is not 2021 anymore. I’m glad to see 2021 go. But you know, I’ve been really glad to see the last five years go. That’s not a great thing. But we are all still here. There is still basketball.

Meanwhile spare thoughts for the people of Colorado who are experiencing the not-at-all-abnormal-and-horrible problem of wildfires IN JANUARY. Driven by 100mph winds. Which is not at all totally different from all past experience and evidence.

Hopefully there will be snow soon.

In the meantime, we do have our favorite distraction, basketball. It would be nice for the Rockets to notch a win, as losing too much, while good for lottery balls, is bad for the other kind. You want a team that tries, that always wants to win, and mostly the Rockets have been that. But lose too many in a row, and it’s hard to get away from losing, even if a few wins wouldn’t hurt a thing.

Let’s see what Jalen Green and Kevin Porter can keep doing. Let’s be glad we don’t have Kyle Lowry flinging himself into literally everything on, or near, the court. If the Rockets aren’t out-free-thrown by 15, their odds improve.

Also we can see MVP Nikola Jokic playing against the guy who’s going to take his crown, Alperen Sengun. Well, that’s the dream anyway.