Game 20: Houston Rockets At Dallas Mavericks Preview

It’s hard to gauge with the heck is going on in the minds of the Houston Rockets at this time.

What seemed like to be another devastating loss, the Rockets were able to pull out the stops to get the “W” over the struggling Pelicans.

It’s the slow starts that have been killing this team but they have lately seemed to find a way to win.

The Rockets have won three out of their last four — not all impressively — but the aforementioned stat doesn’t lie.

They’ll try to put some more numbers in the win column by taking on their foe, their division rival in the 11-8 Dallas Mavericks.

The Mavs have experienced some of the same struggles the Rockets have had such as chemistry with new players and a myriad of injuries but because of Rick Carlisle‘s top-notch coaching acumen, he’s getting the most out of his bunch.

The Rockets have a chance to redeem themselves after a piss-poor showing in a 110-98 loss back Nov. 14.

This team has the tools to win but it’s just a matter of if they’re used correctly and efficiently.

I don’t want to ever see this team let Raymond Felton — 23 points in their last meeting — go wild again, that almost made me puke.

So who’s leading the charge for the Mavericks?

Dirk Nowitzki leads the team in scoring (17.5 PPG), Zaza Pachulia rebounding (10.2 RPG), Deron Williams in assists (5.8 APG) as well as steals (1.40 SPG). Dwight Powell is the team’s top shot-blocker (0.80 BPG).

Let’s talk about what the Mavericks do well.

They take care of the basketball. The Mavs are 5th in the league in turnover ratio with just a measly 12.7 percent of their total possessions ending in a turnover.

They’re good at moving the ball around. The Mavs are 9th in assist ratio with 16.7 percent of their possessions ending with an assist.

Injuries:

Dwight Howard will sit tonight because of rest. Many thought he was done sitting games unless he was actually injured but the doctors only cleared him for back-to-backs. With the Rockets about to take on their fifth game in seven nights, they want him to rest. He will play tomorrow night against the Sacramento Kings. I unfortunately had a feeling this was going to happen.

Donatas Motiejunas will be making a return to the court soon, there’s no timetable that has been set but he’s doing more-and-more everyday. J.B. Bickerstaff said that he’s doing one-on-one drills and he is “salivating” for the day when he can get back into the lineup. He has been cleared to practice.

Sam Dekker had back surgery last week and is expected to miss about three months.

Chandler Parsons has been in-and-out of the lineup still tending to issues with his knee. He still hasn’t been cleared to play in back-to-backs yet and his minutes have been rather limited thus far as he works his way back in. His status is officially day-to-day but I’d suspect he’d be available tonight as the team has been off since Tuesday. We’ll see.

J.J. Barea has already been ruled OUT for tonight with a sprained ankle that has caused him to miss four games as a result.

Sources: Jenny Dial Creech/Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News and Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com.

Three Things to Watch:

Clint Capela vs. Pachulia
Trevor Ariza vs. Matthews
Terrence Jones/Marcus Thornton vs. Nowitzki

Prediction:

106-102 in a Rockets’ win!

The Rockets hit the road to take on the Mavs at American Airlines Center in the first game of a back-to-back.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CST.

The game will be televised on ROOT Sports Southwest and broadcast on SportsTalk 790 AM (KBME) and La Ranchera 850 AM (KEYH) in Spanish.

Go Rockets!

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