The Houston Rockets are coming into the NBA regular season with titles and championships on the mind and with Jeremy Lin coming into his second year as the starting points guard, expectations are very high and now his new teammate Dwight Howard and the team are travelling to Taiwan to play a game against the Indiana Pacers at Taipei Arena in a game that will be on NBA TV at 1:30 am eastern time.
The Rockets have expectations of competing for a championship after signing Howard and with James Harden proving himself to be a superstar in the making, the core of Houston has real potential in 2013-14. The team has an All-Star center in Howard as well as Omer Asik, who averaged a double-double last season while playing in all 82 games and now he will be even more important with Marcus Camby dealing with an injury. Lin and the Rockets are 1-1 in the preseason and they won over the Indiana Pacers in the Philippines after dropping 116 points.
The team has been experimenting with different lineups and sets on the floor and Lin has been a big part of that, with Kevin McHale also deciding on how best to use Asik and Howard, two of the best centers in the league last season. The two teams have been on an international tour and now Lin will play where his parents are from and where he is now a bit of a superstar. Omri Casspi was signed to be a solid reserve and he has been playing well in the preseason after putting up a double-double in the win while Howard ended up with nine points.
The game on Sunday marks a big occasion for Lin and he has said to reporters that he knows there are high expectations for the Rockets this season, especially after signing Howard and the team also has a capable backup in Patrick Beverley, who stepped up for Lin when he was injured last season in the playoffs and now the teams will play just the second game in Taipei after the NBA had a game there in 2009. Lin has had a busy summer with international trips and with the Rockets signing Howard, even more yes will be on Houston, but in Taipei they are all on Lin.
Last season Lin averaged just over 13 points and six assists and he will be a key player for the Rockets this season as they transition to Howard being the center of the offense and with Chandler Parsons developing, the offense could be very productive. Harden was fantastic last season and the offense averaged over 100 points per game to rank second in the league and adding Howard will help the defense, which ranked 28th in the league with over 102 points allowed per game.