The Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers are playing in their western conference NBA playoffs series on Friday night with Game 3 coming at the Moda Center and the matchup starts at 10:30 pm ET and will be streaming from ESPN on TV with the WatchESPN website and has the Blazers leading 2-0 after winning the first two games at the Toyota Center.
The Rockets are now down 2-0 and their backs are against the wall after losing the first two games at home and the Blazers have been looking very good and this is shaping up as one of the best offensive series in the playoffs. Dwight Howard scored 32 points and added 14 rebounds in the last game and he will need to work on shutting down LaMarcus Aldridge, who is having a coming out party in the playoffs after putting up back to back 40 points efforts in the first two games. Jeremy Lin led the way with five assists after Patrick Beverley was banged up and they came into the playoffs as the second best scoring team in the league with 107 points per game.
The Blazers have been playing very well and Aldridge has been at the center of that after putting up 46 points and 18 rebounds in the first game of the series and that game went into overtime. Aldridge added 43 points and was also a big rebounder in the second game, while Damian Lillard and Robin Lopez led the team in rebounding and assists and those three players will be key for the team on Friday night. The Blazers came into the playoffs as the fourth best scoring team in the league and now this Game 3 matchup will be crucial, as Houston could go down 3-0 and that basically will end the series.
The Rockets need to win on Friday and they are matching up in Portland with the Blazers, while the Brooklyn Nets ended up winning over the Toronto Raptors and now they have a 2-1 lead in the series heading into their next game on Sunday. The Nets got 29 points out of Joe Johnson and they now are in control coming into the second game at Barclays and the Raptors pulled back after coming into the second part of the game down 15 points and they cut down to one at a point, but they couldn't get past the Nets. The Bulls are in a tough position and they are looking to win against the Wizards and they are in the same situation as the Rockets, as they are down 2-0 and could lose the first three of the series.
Check here for the Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers live coverage from ESPN.