This will be a busy week for the Houston Rockets (26-23).
Hot off the heels of crushing Charlotte with a 109-95 win Saturday during which four of their starters were in high double-figures in scoring, they will host the formidable Golden State Warriors (30-17) 8 p.m. at the Toyota Center in Houston Tuesday night before they meet up with LeBron James and the world champion Miami Heat Wednesday.
Houston holds a huge advantage heading into this game, as the Warriors haven't won in Houston in five years. They've also seemed to bounce back after snapping a seven-game losing streak in January, having won five of their last seven games behind James Harden and an improving Patrick Patterson and Chandler Parsons.
The Warriors, however, have won four straight and boast not only two awesome scorers in Stephen Curry and David Lee, but their backcourt of Curry and Klay Thompson is young and dynamic, which will provide an intruiging matchup with Houston's own formidable backcourt of Harden and Jeremy Lin.
Latinos Post breaks down the key matchups for Tuesday's game:
Power forward: David Lee, Warriors vs. Patrick Patterson, Rockets
NBA All-Star Lee has become one of the premiere players at the four slot in the NBA. Averaging 19.4 points and 11.1 rebounds, the agile and athletic Lee is as big a reason as any why Golden State has emerged as a new threat in the ever-competitive Western Conference.
Patterson is really starting to make some noise in the last five games, averaging 14.2 points per game and coming off an impressive 24-point outing against Charlotte on Saturday. He'll need another big game if he wants to hang with Lee, but primarily, Patterson needs to figure out how to slow him down on offense.
Advantage: Warriors
Small forward: Harrison Banes, Warriors vs. Chandler Parsons, Rockets
He hasn't scored much this season...until the last five games. Banes is coming off back-to-back double-digit scoring nights, including a 21-point night against Phoenix on Saturday.
Parsons, meanwhile, has been really making a case for himself as a possible No.2 scoring option for the Rockets with 16.6 points in the last five games, including back-to-back 20-plus point scoring nights leading into Tuesday's matchup. Parsons has to be aggressive in order for the Rockets to come through this matchup.
Advantage: Rockets
Center: Festus Ezeli, Warriors vs. Omer Asik, Rockets
Filling in for the injured Andrew Bogut (day-to-day, ankle) Ezeli is pretty agile at 6'11" and 255 pounds, and has made his name on interior defense. He'll face a challenge in Asik, who has been terrorizing the boards with 14.8 rebounds in the last five games, added in with his 10.6 points per game production. When he's averaging high numbers in both categories, like his 19-point, 15-rebound night against Charlotte on Saturday, Asik can be unstoppable.
Advantage: Rockets
Shooting Guard: Klay Thompson, Warriors vs. James Harden, Rockets
This will be a great matchup to watch.
Thompson is good. Really good. His 22.8 points over the last five games is proof of that. And he can even be great, as his 32-point night against Cleveland on Jan. 29 demonstrates. But Harden is playing at another level. Houston's sole NBA All-Star, ranked fifth among NBA scorers with 25.8 points per game, has been shooting at 50 percent over the last five games, though his scoring numbers have dropped a bit since dropping 29 points on Brooklyn on Jan. 26.
Harden will have to be aggressive to keep Thompson under control, but not as much as Thompson will have to be to stop one of the NBA's preeminent scorers this season.
Advantage: Rockets
Point Guard: Stephen Curry, Warriors vs. Jeremy Lin, Rockets
Both are explosive, both are fan favorites. And both can be difference makers if they get hot on offense.
The difference is, Curry, ranked eight among scorers with 21.1 points this season, has been far more consistent on offense. He hasn't missed a beat despite his sprained right ankle that kept him out for two games last week, returning with a vengeance to score 29 points in Golden State's 113-97 win over Phoenix on Saturday.
Lin's streak of consecutive games with double-figures in scoring ended at four on Saturday when he scored only nine points to go with eight assists in the Rockets's 109-95 win over the lowly Bobcats. But Lin will be a gametime decision after spraining his ankle in practice on Monday.
Lin will need to have a big night to match Curry on offense. If he can get at least 10 shots off and attack the basket aggressively, the Rockets might have what they need to pull it out. But if he lets Curry take over the game, Golden State's win is all but assured.
Advantage: Warriors
Bench
Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry have been providing critical contributions off the bench for Golden State, each of them producing double figures in point production to round out the Warriors' top five scorers.
For the Rockets, Carlos Delfino, their most valuable sub, is questionable for the game with an elbow injury, which could leave the reliable Marcus Morris and the streaky veteran Toney Douglas to try and fill in the void.
Advantage: Warriors
Game time, live score
Game time starts at 8 p.m. Tuesday, EST. Live score is available via TV Companion, here.
Live Streaming
Live Streaming for the Game is can be seen via ESPN. (Service Provider Required)