In the exact midpoint of a season-long homestand of seven games, the young Houston Rockets host Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night. The Rockets are 2-1 on the homestand so far and have won five of their last six games at Toyota Center.
The good news for the Rockets is that they will be rested and at home, whereas the Blazers will be on night two of a road back-to-back in Texas after playing at Dallas on Friday night.
The bad news for Houston, of course, is that Portland is led by a perennial All-Star guard and elite scorer in Lillard, who represents the caliber of player that the rebuilding Rockets do not yet have.
The Trail Blazers already defeated the Rockets once this season back on Oct. 28, and Lillard didn’t even play in that convincing 14-point victory. Anfernee Simons and Jusuf Nurkic led the way.
But since then, the Rockets have clearly made improvements, and particularly on defense. Saturday could put that to the test.