At 9:00 a.m. Beijing time on February 9, the Houston Rockets will go to the away game to challenge the Pelicans. In fact, the two teams had a meeting two days ago, and in the end, the Rockets lost to the Pelicans by 13 points at home, and won two consecutive losses. The Pelicans have seen a three-game winning streak since that game, and their Western Conference regular season rankings have risen from 11th in the West to 10th today, surpassing the Trail Blazers and occupying a playoff qualifier position.
If it continues like this, the Pelicans may be ranked higher, and even have the hope of hitting the top 8 in the West, after all, they are currently 5 wins away from the Los Angeles Clippers, who are 8th in the West, and everything can happen. This "re-battle" between the Rockets and the Pelicans is nothing for the Rockets, and the only thing fans want to see is that the Rockets' young players such as Jaylen Green and Shen Jing have better play. As for winning or losing, it is not the most important thing, after all, the purpose of the Rockets is to spoil it.
Looking at the injury situation, the Rockets' Knicks and Quinn are still developing the League Vipers and cannot return to the team for the time being; Garuba is still out of the team due to injury, and he may not return until more than a month later. The Rockets' Wall made an agreement with the team not to play again. The only uncertainty is rockets' 33-year-old guard Gordon, who, according to Silas, has missed training due to fasciitis in his feet, and this game against the Pelicans may still be absent.
In addition to these players, the rockets can play all other players. The Pelicans' Zion was injured and could not play, Willie Hernangomez missed the game due to the trigger agreement, defender Temple's form was also questionable, and Kira Lewis continued to be absent due to a right knee sprain.
These are the injuries of both teams, and overall, the Pelicans are missing more key players than the Rockets. NBA expert Ben Dubos also gave the "expected starting point" of the two teams: the Rockets started five Tigers: Porter Jr., Jaylen Green, Tate, Wood and Shen Jing; the Pelicans were: Derwent Graham, Hart, Herbert Jones, Ingram and Valanciunas.
It is worth noting that in Dubos's prediction, the Rockets' Gordon is still absent from the game, Shen Jing has replaced his starting position, and the Rockets will still use the "Wood + Shen Jing" twin tower lineup to start. The NBA expert also believes that if Gordon can't play in this game, the Rockets will give 20-year-old rookie guard Josh Christopher more opportunities to play, because TOEFL has performed well in recent games, and he has averaged 12.8 points per game in the last five games.
For the Rockets, it is naturally best to win, and losing is not a big deal; and for the Pelicans, they urgently need to continue to win to ensure the final playoff hopes, after all, the Pelicans are currently in good shape, it is very likely to squeeze out the Blazers to become the holders of playoff qualifier tickets, so against a weak team like the Rockets, they must win a key victory from the Rockets.