Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game preview

Suddenly, the Houston Rockets are on a winning streak.

What seemed impossible just a week ago has become reality. The Rockets still sit in last place in the NBA, but with wins over two teams currently in the top 6 in the Eastern Conference, Houston has to be brimming with confidence.

Of course, it’s one step forward and one step back for the Rockets. No sooner did things start looking up that John Wall began expressing his displeasure with his current role within the team. Will Wall’s wallowing cause a distraction? It’s clear the team does not want to start Wall. Houston is fully committed to seeing the Kevin Porter Jr. point guard experiment all the way through. Wall is not part of Houston’s future, so it makes sense that team officials would rather Wall continue in his complementary role or leave entirely. Since no team in their right minds would trade for the 2 years and $92 million remaining on Wall’s deal, the two sides remain at a stalemate.

The Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder have split the two previous matchups. The two teams play tonight, and then travel to OKC to play again on Wednesday. That’s a pretty quick season series to be done by December 1. I think Houston and Memphis wrapped up all four of their games before Thanksgiving a few years ago, but that’s a relatively rare schedule quirk.

OKC will probably be there with Houston at the bottom of the standings when the season ends. It would probably behoove the Rockets in the long run to split these two games (or lose both). The Thunder have lost their last five games after achieving an unexpected 6-8 record.

For Houston, Jalen Green is still out with a strained hamstring. Kenrich Williams will miss the game for OKC with an ankle injury.

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