Game Preview: 76ers at Rockets

While not all of the Rockets’ early season woes fall squarely on the shoulders of Ty Lawson, his failure to adjust to the Rockets system is definitely not helping to improve the problem in Houston. Although they did not give up their most recent loss easily, the Rockets may of just had the better athleticism. Harden and Howard worked splendidly in concert, with Harden scoring 16 points in the quarter to stretch a five-point halftime lead to 76-62 with a trey with 6:36 left in the period. Jackson was booed loudly during pregame warmups and was jeered most of the time when he touched the ball. Jahlil Okafor posted 19 points and nine rebounds.

We’ve all heard of moral victories, when one team performs valiantly in the face of adversity and learns something grand about themselves in the wake of a tough and usually close loss. According to the oddsmakers, the Over/Under (O/U) is now 201 points.

The Rockets were not done trying to donate the game, though, the Holiday spirit clearly upon them.

The Knicks and Rockets have now split the 2015-16 season series one apiece, with each team winning on the opposing team’s home court. The Pistons are 1-3 on the back end of those. Blocking shots is an area where Philadelphia has excelled. “The rest of the game, we just let up and that’s how they got confidence”. If they could run a play or hit a shot or rebound a ball, they wouldn’t have needed late game heroics and a last second shot from Marcus Thornton to save the game. The 7-10 record is now good for 10th in a deteriorating conference.

Houston is 0-5 ATS in its last 5 games.

Houston is 1-7 SU in its last 8 games. “It is hard”, Philadelphia forward Nerlens Noel told reporters after the loss in Boston, the team’s third in a row of five points or fewer.

The Warriors set a franchise mark for 3-pointers with 22, one shy of the league record. The 76ers rank 21st for their defensive rating of 103.4. NY cut it to 108-107 on consecutive hoops by Afflalo and on Houston’s next possession Howard split a pair at the line.

Yes, history is being made by the Philadelphia 76ers right now. Here’s the final field goal he deposited during that sequence. The Houston Rockets have a poor record of 4-10 when opponents have an EFF% of 45.8% or greater. The fans are growing restless as the Philadelphia 76ers are becoming the laughing stock of not only the National Basketball Association, but all of professional sports. The Rockets are 2-2 in the second half of back-to-backs…

The Rockets quickly built their largest lead of the night in overtime with a tremendous dunk by Dwight Howard over Porzingis and then a three-pointer from Thornton.