The Houston Rockets have a new look with Dwight Howard after signing the superstar away from the Lakers and with championship expectations the team gets a nice preseason test against the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night, as the two teams will play in a game on Turner Network Television from the AT&T Center and it will begin at 8:00 PM on TNT for TV coverage.
Howard comes to the team with very high expectations and after they pulled off the James Harden deal last season, the team is ready for more and with names like Jeremy Lin, Omer Asik and Chandler Parsons on the roster as well, the team has depth and could be a big factor in the western conference this year. Last season the Spurs obviously advanced to the finals against the Miami Heat and now the Rockets will put their team on the floor in the preseason with a 4-1 record, while the San Antonio Spurs have a 3-3 record.
While the preseason doesn't really mean much when it comes to the regular season, a game like this is a nice test for any team, especially one looking to make the jump from the eighth seed in the west into the top part of the conference. Last season the team made it in as the eighth seed and lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder and now with Howard in the fold they are expecting much more, with at least a trip to the conference finals being looked at as a target. Howard was not fully healthy last season and was still a beast, averaging a double-double and now that he is not in the fish bowl of LA, he could have a bit less media pressure, although the title pressure will be on hard.
Check here for the Chicago Bulls regular season schedule.
Daryl Morey has put together an interesting team and Howard is the center of it, while Omer Asik will need to find a new role, but he is an excellent player and chances are the Rockets will not trade him as many have speculated. Asik played in all 82 games last season and also averaged a double-double and now the team may try and use both on the court at the same time to maximize their potential and depending on the type of sets, it could have the two best centers in the NBA on the floor at the same time and not too many teams can say that about their squads.
The team comes into the Spurs game after defeating the state rival Mavericks and Harden led the way with 19 points while Howard had 17 rebounds and Lin led the team with eight assists. That's the type of performance they want every night and they come back after ranking first in the league in scoring and the team was also in the top 10 in assists and rebounds per game. The defensive scoring per game was ranked 28th, but adding Howard surely will cut that in half and now they will play the Spurs before facing off against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday. The final game of the preseason is against Memphis and then they open the year with the Bobcats. Nice.
