First off: I\u2019ll be at my brother\u2019s wedding and spending time with family for the next week. In my absence, Xiane and Holly will be taking over the game previews for Houston\u2019s next four games. Please be kind to them and engage in meaningful and respectful conversation in the comments.<\/p>\n
Things are bad for the Houston Rockets right now. Their three-point shooting has been abysmal and the energy levels have been poor. They\u2019re hoping that this five-game homestand, their longest of the season, can get them back on track. If not, Houston could find themselves in a fight to get out of the play-in spots.<\/p>\n
The Chicago Bulls started off hot, but have cooled off since. They\u2019re 18-20 but have wins over the Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks, and New Orleans Pelicans. For reference, the Rockets are 4-10 against those teams. The Bulls also come in with a rest advantage since their last game was on Saturday.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see early how Houston will respond to their recent losing streak. If they actually come out playing well in the opening minutes, we\u2019ll know that they have found something new. Otherwise, they could let the Bulls hang around, take a lead that they\u2019ll hold throughout the game, and then watch as Houston falls apart in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Maybe the Toyota Center sightlines can help the Rockets, unlike what they did for Tracy McGrady. Houston is 11-2 at home this season (and 11-12 on the road, which says a lot about their schedule).<\/p>\n
7pm CT on January 13, 2026<\/p>\n
The Line (as of this post)<\/p>\n
Looking ahead because we can<\/p>\n
Thursday night at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First off: I\u2019ll be at my brother\u2019s wedding and spending time with family for the next week. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211,2697],"class_list":{"0":"post-533730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-rockets","14":"tag-rockets-game-previews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115887530567507758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}