Tonight markls the end of an eventful first half of the season for the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers. The Rockets have had some nice winning streaks that have been broken up by sour losses that seem to prove that the team has zero chance at winning games that don’t matter. The Clippers started off poorly, then followed a 3-16 stretch with a 16-3 stretch. Then they punted on the season and traded away their second- and third-best players.

The Rockets defended Kawhi Leonard well in the first game of this mini-series, but with Tari Eason and Dorian Finney-Smith likely out tonight on a back-to-back, it will be up to others to pick up the slack. Of course, most of the players will have a week off while Alperen Sengun and Kevin Durant head to LA (on Ballmer’s plane???) for the All-Star Game on Sunday night.

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If you’d like to discuss the game while it’s happening, Xiane and I will be following along on Discord. We’d love to see you there.

Tip-off

7pm CT

How To Watch

Space City Home Network

Injury ReportRockets

Steven Adams: OUT

Fred VanVleet: OUT

Tari Eason: probably out

Dorian Finney-Smith: probably out

Clippers

Darius Garland: OUT

Bradley Beal: OUT

The Line (as of this post)

HOU -8.5

Check here for updates

Looking ahead because we can

The All-Star Break, then on the road against the Charlotte Hornets next Thursday (February 19)