Read a preview and watch a live stream of the Spurs vs the Rockets…
Where: Toyota Center, Houston.
When: Friday November 7, 01:00 (UK time)
Watch live: Click here to watch on BT Sport online!
The San Antonio Spurs will provide the Houston Rockets with another tough test on Thursday night as the hosts look to remain unbeaten and go 6-0 to start the season.
It has undoubtedly been an impressive start to the year for the Rockets, with James Harden and Dwight Howard taking on bigger roles and flourishing so far.
Despite losing Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik this past summer, Houston appear to have found a fine balance between their two superstars and the rest of the roster, with key contributions coming from the likes of Trevor Ariza and Patrick Beverley.
However, Harden has a team-high 27.2 points and 7.4 assists per game average while Howard dominates on the boards with 10.6 rebounds per game.
Their scoring, and perhaps more importantly their defense, will be put under the microscope on Thursday night when the Spurs enter town, although the defending champions have made a slow start whilst playing just three games so far this season.
Manu Ginobili conceded that the entire team needs to “be sharper and execute better”, and coach Gregg Popovich will hope to see that from his players with a big game on the line.
San Antonio have struggled against Houston in recent times, with point guard Tony Parker and veteran forward Tim Duncan both seeing their numbers fall way short of their averages when they come up against the Rockets.
Nevertheless, both have started the new campaign well although they will be slightly short of support with Tiago Splitter and Marco Belinelli expected to miss out while Kawhi Leonard is still working his way back after missing the start of the season with an eye infection.
Howard is averaging 21.1 points on 61.7 percent shooting with 16.5 rebounds while collecting 10 straight double-doubles against the Spurs, and so Popovich must find a way to limit his influence on the game.
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