The good news for the Houston Rockets is that they can now move on to another opponent after getting swept twice at home by the Los Angeles Lakers.
The bad news is that their next opponent, the Atlanta Hawks, have won 11 games in a row and look quite mighty these days. And if you’d like more bad news, this is the first game of a back-to-back where Houston next opponent, the Miami Heat, will be rested and ready.
This homestand was clearly going to be supremely important to Houston, but they were dealt kind of a bad hand. The Pelicans came in playing really well, the Lakers were on a five-game winning streak and had finally found themselves, the Hawks are obviously red-hot, and the Heat have won seven of their last ten games too. In reality, the Rockets needed to get out at 3-2 or 4-1, and they certainly couldn’t drop two to the Lakers. Now, they’ll have to try to salvage what’s left.
Houston did finally seem to have some answers against the double teams that were sent at Kevin Durant. Those strategies will be tested once again versus a Hawks squad with much better perimeter and on-ball defenders than the Lakers employ.
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The Line (as of this post)
Looking ahead because we can
Tomorrow night at home against the Miami Heat
