Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game preview

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the last team that the Houston Rockets actually beat. Of course, a few nights later the Thunder turned the tables and decimated Houston by scoring 153 points.

It feels like we could be in for another one of the latter games.

OKC has been on an offensive explosion of late. In their last three wins, they have scored at least 133 points. That’s entering the level of “It doesn’t matter how bad your defense is, you’re still going to outscore your opponents” strategy that the Kansas City Chiefs have used to claim a couple of Super Bowl wins recently.

For a variety of reasons, the Thunder are a fascinating team going into and coming out of the All-Star break. Last season, it was around this time that OKC decided to go all-in on the tank. They shut down any player that could be considered “not terrible” and consistently started lineups of five players that no one had heard of before that night. It ended up working as they landed Chet Holmgren at #2. They’re currently just half a game outside of the play-in tournament, which would be a big step for their young squad. But on the other hand, they are only a few games up on the fifth-worst team in the league, Orlando. OKC really only owns their own pick this year, so as it stands it could end up being a low-key draft for them.

Tonight is the final game before the All-Star break. Houston’s next game isn’t until next Friday (February 24) against the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

Tip-off is at 7pm CT on AT&T SportsNet Southwest