After a 35-point defeat at Cleveland, the Houston Rockets are finally back at home. The good news is that rocket coach Silas's dehydration problem is no longer a big problem, according to rocket assistant coach Lucas Sr., in the next game with the Knicks, Silas will personally coach the rockets. The other good news is that Eric Gordon, who has been very good before the Rockets, will also return to the line of fire in this game, and he will become the core player of the Rockets again, leading the young players to meet the Knicks.
NBA expert Nick Schwartz also made his own analysis and prospects for the Rockets' home game against the Knicks, and he also made some analysis of the starting lineup and injury situation of the two teams. First look at the situation of the two teams, the Knicks are worse than the Rockets, the Rockets at least won the away game against the still powerful Atlanta Hawks, and the Knicks have experienced 4 consecutive losses, even if Randall and Derrick Rose try their best, they can't lead the team to victory.
At present, the Knicks only rank 12th in the East with 12 wins and 16 losses, and the Rockets are ranked 13th in the West with 9 wins and 19 losses, the situation of the two teams is half a pound, although in terms of paper strength, the Knicks who entered the playoffs last season are stronger, but the Rockets under the leadership of Gordon, do not fear the Knicks at all. In addition to the Rockets' return to Gordon, Wood continues to be absent, along with Porter Jr., Jaylen Green and House, while Wall does not play, Anderson Knicks (Rockets two-way contract point guard) is still developing the league, and these 6 players are unable to play in this game.
Looking at the Knicks, 3 players RJ Barrett, Obi-Topping and Quentin Grimes are all absent because of the "health and safety agreement". Schwartz's starting lineup for both sides is expected to be: the Rockets' starting five Tigers are Augustine, Gordon, Matthews, Tate and Theis, and the Knicks are Derrick Rose, Fournier, Burks, Randle and Noel.
It is worth noting that in the opinion of this expert, the Rockets will not use Shin Kyung as the starting center to replace Wood, but will continue to use the veteran Who performed poorly against the Cavaliers in the previous game and only had 5 points and 6 rebounds as the starting center.
Another noteworthy thing is that the Rockets will also use the most commonly used "single center mode" in this game, with Theis as a single center, Tate as a big forward, and gordon, Augustine and Matthews as the 3 shooters, such a lineup should be the strongest lineup that the Rockets can take.
Compared with the Rockets' desirelessness, the Knicks, who are obviously aiming to impact the playoffs, value the victory of this game more, and they will definitely go all out to find a way to defeat the Rockets, which lacks many main players.