The Houston Rockets and the Miami Heat are playing live on the NBA preseason schedule and the game is on TNT and streaming live online from AmericanAirlines Arena at 8 pm ET as Dwight Howard and James Harden take on Luol Deng, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh as the exhibition season gets close to finishing up.
Houston comes into the game at 4-1 on the preseason and they have looked impressive, while the Miami Heat are 2-4 on the preseason and are coming in after a win. The Rockets took down the Golden State Warriors and they next have the Magic on Wednesday and that leads into the start of the regular season schedule next week. The Heat have some major changes coming after LeBron James went back to Cleveland and it means the Heat will have a new leading scorer, rebounder and assist man after James was tops for the team in those last season.
The Heat won over the Spurs in their last matchup and they now have the Rockets before a matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies and that will be on the road on Friday. Houston has Miami and then Orlando in Florida for the Dwight Howard homecoming back to the Magic and then the team finishes with a Texas matchup with the Spurs before starting the season schedule. The Rockets come in after James Harden dropped 15 points and six assists on the Warriors, while Howard had eight rebounds.
The Rockets were the second ranked team in scoring offense last season and they come back minus Chandler Parsons and now they have to find a way to make up for that offense. The team was fourth in rebounding and with Omer Asik getting traded to will be hard to keep that up, but getting Trevor Ariza on a free agent deal should help with both of those. Harden averaged 25 points last season and now he once again will be the focal point of the offense for the Rockets.
Miami comes in after losing in the finals to the Spurs, while the Rockets come in after a disappointing first round loss to the Blazers. Houston was the higher seeded team and had home court, but they still lost. Miami has a new roster and a new team basically and now they are looking to get things going to start the season off right after the loss of James. The Heat likely will win their division, as they are better than the Wizards, but John Wall has an exciting team in DC, but they will be without Bradley Beal for a couple months.
Miami comes in after losing four straight preseason games and winning the last two and now they have Houston and Memphis. The team opens the season with Washington at home and that is on Wednesday and then they have Philly on the road for game two.
Check here for the Houston Rockets and the Miami Heat live coverage from TNT and the NBA.
