Houston Rockets vs. Toronto Raptors game preview

The Houston Rockets are on the second north part of their “North South North South” road trip tonight as they head north of the border to take on the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors are 6-5 with wins over the Cavs, Heat, Sixers, Hawks, Spurs, and Bulls. All of those teams besides San Antonio are expected to make the playoffs. Houston is coming off their first road victory of the season. The only winless teams on the road are Orlando, Detroit (not surprising), the Lakers (somewhat expected but still odd), and Golden State (surpising, and hilarious).

For the Raptors, star Pascal Siakam (adductor strain) and Khem Birch (knee) are out tonight. On the Rockets side, Jae’Sean Tate is out once again. Tate has not played since the calendar turned to November.

These teams met in preseason, with Houston taking a 116-100 victory. That means nothing here, but is interesting. Toronto should still be favored to win pretty big. We’ll see if Jalen Green can continue to shoot as well as he did Monday night in Orlando. And if Jabari Smith Jr. can have a big night against a team with similar long and athletic players.

Tip-off is at 6:30pm CT on AT&T SportsNet Southwest