Houston Rockets vs. New York Knicks game preview

First off, happy new year to everyone! While the Houston Rockets haven’t had the best 2022 in terms of record, at The Dream Shake we’ve had a great year talking Rockets hoops. Here’s to a better 2023 on the court and a similarly awesome 2023 in the chats.

Tonight, the Rockets take on the New York Knicks, who are coming off giving up a 60/20/10 game to Luka Doncic and a loss to the lowly San Antonio Spurs. In that loss, Julius Randle dropped 41 points. RJ Barrett and Jalen Brunson missed that contest, and Barrett’s out tonight.

The Knicks are currently on a 5-game losing streak, and that’s coming on the heels of an 8-game winning streak that had the Big Apple excited about sports for the first time since Game 1 of the American League Championship Series (sorry I legally had to do it). Luckily for the Knicks, they’re still .500 and within spitting distance of sixth place in the East. And each game in this losing streak has been by single digits. They’re not getting blown out even as they struggle. That’s a promising trend even if things are looking bad in New York.

Houston looked disinterested for much of Thursday night’s game in Dallas. The effort was poor and the attention to detail poorer still. We’ll see if the team can ring in the new year with a win, but even with the Knicks missing pieces it’s going to be difficult to stop Randle and co.

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