The battle of Texas resumes as a Donald Trump-led America gets ready to watch the Houston Rockets play the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA on Wednesday. While all the attention will be on the new president, the players on court will hope it is business as usual with James Harden and co. looking to trip up one of their biggest Western Conference rivals.
Harden, as always, will be the key man for the Rockets, and the guard looks in the mood too. In his last game, Harden was unstoppable, scoring 32 points and dishing out 15 assists in a 114-106 victory over the Washington Wizards.
The Rockets have only made a 4-3 start to the season, but Harden is averaging a double-double so far, with 31.6ppg and 12.7 assists a game.
"Chemistry with everybody is getting there," Harden said after his stellar game, when he exploded in the second half following a slow start against the Wizards. "It's just dependant on me making the right decision."
The Spurs (5-2), who opened their NBA season with a wonderful win over the Western Conference Champions Golden State Warriors, will hope Harden doesn't make the right decisions against them, because if he does, the scoring will be difficult to stop.
Spurs do play great defense, though, but the key will be to keep it for the entire period of the play, because just a drop in concentration and someone like a Harden will either score or find a teammate to do just that.
San Antonio will, again, depend on Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge, who are averaging 26.4 and 18.8 points per game this season. They will need those two to step up, because the Spurs have lost both their home games this season, the last one being a poor 116-92 defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Greg Popovich, the coach, however, is not too worried. "You just see what you did well in every game, see what you did poorly and go practice and move on to the next game," Popovich said. "Spending time wondering why is a waste of time."
Where to Watch Live
Rockets vs Spurs is scheduled for 9.30pm ET (8am IST, 2.30am GMT next day) start. Live Streaming and TV information is below.
India: No Live coverage.
USA: TV: ESPN. Live Streaming: Watch ESPN.
UK: TV: BT Sport. Live Streaming: Watch BT Sport.
International (including India): NBA Online.
