The Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets are playing Game 5 of their NBA playoffs series on Wednesday night and the matchup from the Toyota Center starts up at 9:30 pm ET on TNT and has the Blazers up 3-1 and the game will have a live stream online and comes with Dwight Howard and his team looking to stay alive and force another game in the western conference first round.
The Blazers have been playing very well in this series and the main reason has been LaMarcus Aldridge and now he looks like a budding superstar and he is averaging well over 30 points per game in the series. The last game went into overtime and the last three games have been toss ups at the end that either team easily could have won and now they have Game 5 on Wednesday night. Aldridge had back to back games with over 40 points and he has been nearly unstoppable, while Damian Lillard has shown some major growth and the playoffs have not been an issue for him, as he is averaging over 25 points in the series.
The Rockets have gotten plenty of scoring from James Harden, Chandler Parsons and Dwight Howard, but all three have not played well enough overall to get the team over the hump. Harden and Howard are averaging 27 points each and Harden led the way with 37 points in the Game 3 loss, while Howard has had 14 rebounds in each of the past three games. Aldridge was the top scorer with 29 points in the game on Sunday and now he has 46 points, 43 points and nearly 30 in those three games and he has been the key for the Blazers.
The team now has the chance to close things out and if not, the next game of the series come on Friday and that will be the late game on ESPN and then the Game 7 matchup will be in Houston on Sunday if it's needed and the Rockets can win two straight games.
The schedule on Thursday has a number of big games, with the Atlanta Hawks looking to end the series against the Indiana Pacers and that could come in Game 6, as the Hawks are up 3-2 in that series after the upset win in Indy. The team is pulling one of the biggest upsets ever right now and getting through Game 6 and into the next round would be a huge accomplishment, but they have to close out the game or the Pacers will get a chance at Game 7 at home.
The Oklahoma City Thunder had a rough finish it their game against the Memphis Grizzlies and that went into overtime for the fourth straight game and now OKC must avoid losing the series, down 3-2 on the road. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook need to step up and Memphis has shown that they are a strong home team in the playoffs and now they get the chance to close things out. The LA Clippers can do the same with the Warriors and with everything they are dealing with, that would be a huge accomplishment. The Miami Heat and Washington Wizards are the only teams through right now and the Blazers can join them with a win on Wednesday night.
Check here for the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets live coverage for the NBA playoffs.