The Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers are playing Game 3 of their western conference playoff series on Friday night and the game will be on the TV schedule on ESPN starting at 10:30 pm ET and Dwight Howard and his team come in at 2-0 down in the series after losing both games at home and now they hit the Moda Center for the next two.
The Blazers won both games at the Toyota Center after some great performances from LaMarcus Aldridge and he is averaging over 40 points heading into Game 3 and if the Rockets can't stop him, it could lead to a third straight loss. The games on Wednesday night went back and forth and the Blazers were able to pull away at the end despite 32 points and 14 rebounds from Howard and he will need to be on the top of his game to shut down Aldridge and Houston may try a different lineup for the game on Friday night.
Houston was the second best scoring team in the league with over 107 points per game and they have a must-win situation at 2-0 down in the series. Aldridge has been fantastic and he scored 46 points in the first game and grabbed 18 rebounds in overtime and he had 43 points in the second game, while Damian Lillard led the way with 11 assists.
The other games on Friday include the Brooklyn Nets and the Toronto Raptors for their Game 3 matchup and that will be at the Barclays center and that started at 7 pm ET on ESPN2, while the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards play at 8 pm ET at the Verizon Center and that will be on ESPN. The Wizards are up 2-0 in their series, while the Nets are tied 1-1 after winning one game in Toronto and on Saturday the Hawks and Pacers will start things off as Indiana tries to win Game 4 in Atlanta.
The Hawks stunned the Pacers and are now up 2-1 in the series and the second game on Saturday has the San Antonio Spurs heading into Dallas to play the Mavericks after losing in Game 2. The Mavs won for the first time in San Antonio in quite some time and now they have the chance to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Miami and Charlotte play with Miami up 2-0 on the Bobcats and the final game on Saturday has the Oklahoma City Thunder taking on the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 4 and that series is 2-1.
