After losing two straight games, the new dynamic duo of James Harden and Jeremy Lin look to return the Houston Rockets (2-2) to their winning ways tonight, but they face a tough challenge in the form of Zach Randolph, Rudy Gay and the red-hot Memphis Grizzlies (3-1) at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn.
To win, Houston is going to need to reduce their turnovers-they had 20 in Wednesday's 93-87 loss to the Denver Nuggets-and increase their ball movement to beat the Grizzlies's tall front line of Gay, Marc Gasol and Randoph. Houston had a season low 18 assists in Wednesday's loss.
"These last two games we haven't had ball movement, we haven't had body movement, we're not cutting, the ball's sticky - just a lot of stuff that we've got to correct," coach Kevin McHale told NBA.com. "The bottom line is we have to correct it."
They'll have to figure it out in a hurry if they want to beat a tough Grizzlies team that went to the Western Conference Finals in 2010-2011. All-Star center Gasol is leading Memphis with 19.3 points per game and is second on the team with 7.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists. And with seven Memphis players scoring at least 6.8 points per game and four averaging 5.5 rebounds, Memphis is getting the kind of solid production that the new-look Rockets have yet to see as they struggle to get chemistry going.
"I guess I am playing a little more off the ball," Lin told the Houston Chronicle. "There is a little bit of a transition. But we still need to be aggressive coming off picks and in close-out situations, knocking down jumpers. I didn't shoot well, and I haven't been shooting well, so I have to get out of this slump. Hitting that shot will open things up."
Ultimately, new star Harden says that the Rockets will improve once they get more accustomed to each other.
"As the games go on, we'll get better," Harden told NBA.com. "We haven't played together. We didn't have a training camp or have time to really put in some sets, so we're kind of just figuring things out as we go."
Game time starts at 8 p.m. EST.
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