The Houston Rockets have won three games in a row and five of their last six. The New Orleans Pelicans have lost seven straight games and have only five wins this season.
On Thursday night, the team with the second-best record in the Western Conference, the Rockets, will play the team with the worst record in the conference, the Pelicans.
The Rockets showed their depth in a 114-101 win at Charlotte on Monday. Even with two of their seven players averaging double digits in scoring, Dillon Brooks and Tari Eason, missing from the lineup, the team still managed to score well.
Amen Thompson moved into the starting lineup in place of Brooks and scored 19 points with 11 rebounds, while Cam Whitmore, a two-way player, added 17 points off the bench.
“That’s what I love about this team,” said guard Fred VanVleet, who scored 20 points, “different guys stepping up and contributing every night.”
The Rockets came out strong from the start, leading 62-31 at halftime. They kept focused, knowing that although the Hornets had the third-worst record in the Eastern Conference, they could still pose a challenge. On opening night, Houston had lost to the Hornets after squandering an 18-point lead in a 110-105 defeat.
Earlier this week, the Rockets had a slow start in their game against Toronto, allowing 35 first-quarter points before coming back to win 114-110 on Sunday.
“We had great focus on the back-to-back on the road,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “I loved our grit and intensity from the start.”
The Rockets will now look to complete a sweep of their three-game road trip against teams that together have one less win than Houston’s 20.
The Pelicans are coming off one of their better performances recently. They led the Denver Nuggets by 17 points late in the third quarter before losing 132-129 in overtime on Sunday.
This game continued the trend of guard Dejounte Murray improving and center Yves Missi, the 21st overall pick in this year’s NBA draft, playing like one of the top rookies in the league.
Murray, who suffered a broken non-shooting hand in the season opener and missed 17 games, has started to return to the all-around player the Pelicans hoped for when they traded for him in the offseason.
In the 12 games since coming back, his scoring average is 16.2, which is 6.3 points lower than his career-high from last season, and he’s shooting just 35.7 percent from the field. However, in 44 minutes against the Nuggets, Murray had 17 points, 15 assists, eight rebounds, and six steals.
“His scoring may not be where he wants it to be,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said of Murray, “but he’s going out and finding his teammates. He’s super engaged on the defensive end. He can impact the game in so many different ways.”
Missi played well against Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, who did not score until less than three minutes remained in the second quarter, even though he finished with a triple-double. Missi scored 21 points with nine rebounds. He has started 23 of 29 games and is averaging 9.7 points and 8.6 rebounds.
“It’s incredible,” Green said, “what we’re asking a 20-year-old rookie to do night-in and night-out, and he’s answering the call.”
