{"id":544985,"date":"2026-01-18T16:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T16:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/544985\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T16:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T16:52:18","slug":"rockets-look-to-keep-up-the-momentum-versus-new-orleans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/544985\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets look to keep up the momentum versus New Orleans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">After a \u200ctight \u200cvictory against Minnesota, Houston aims to snag another one against New Orleans. This year, the Rockets sit at 0-1 against the Pelicans, following a 133-128 defeat in overtime. From there, New Orleans picked up just four wins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">So far, the Rockets have shown flashes of real power mixed with some shaky stretches, pulling off wins in high-speed matchups, yet dropping others they should have claimed. In the latest outing, Kevin Durant dropped 39 points to beat the Timberwolves, highlighting his knack for those huge scoring bursts. When Houston locks in, their fast breaks and board work stand out; they often cash in on extra shots and own the glass.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">New Orleans, though, packs a serious scoring punch when everybody\u2019s fit, even amid all their troubles this campaign. Still, injuries and uneven play kept them from accumulating wins, and lately, betting lines favored the Pacers over them, pointing to deeper issues across the board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Houston has to cut down on turnovers and draw solid efforts not only from Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun, but also from guys like Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard, and Jabari Smith Jr too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">How To Watch<br \/>Space City Home Network<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Injury Report<br \/>Rockets<br \/>Fred VanVleet: Out (Acl),<br \/>Dorian Finney-Smith: Day-To-Day (Ankle),<br \/>Tari Eason: Day-To-Day (Ankle)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Herb Jones (right ankle sprain) &#8211; Out<br \/>Dejounte Murray (right Achilles rupture) &#8211; Out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a \u200ctight \u200cvictory against Minnesota, Houston aims to snag another one against New Orleans. This year, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544986,"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-544985","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\/115917143877374498","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544985","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=544985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}