Despite blowing out the Lakers 108-90 last night, the Rockets' win was marred by the injury to Julius Randle, the Purple and Gold's lottery pick, who broke his leg in the second half and will likely miss the rest of the season. However, what the Jazz have to take away from this game is that Houston is a very dangerous team.
The addition of Dwight Howard last year solidified the front-line for Houston, who won 54 games and locked down a 4 seed in the playoffs before getting ousted by Damian Lillard's last second 3-pointer in Game 6 of the first round against Portland. Although they lost Jeremy Lin to the Lakers, James Harden and Howard added weapons such as Trevor Ariza and Jason Terry, who are proven scorers in the NBA. The former is starting up front, alongside Howard and Terrence Jones, who had a double-double last night. Jason Terry and Patrick Beverley will likely split time alongside James Harden, who dropped 32 points in last night's win.
For the Jazz, it seems that new Head Coach Quin Snyder will roll with Alex Burks, Trey Burke, Gordon Hayward, Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors as the starting five. Rookie Dante Exum and swingman Trevor Booker will likely be the first two players off the bench, and should be a steady part of the rotation this season. The Jazz went 1-2 against Houston last season, but were blown out in their last meeting, 124-86. Unlike the Rockets, who will likely be a top five team in the Western Conference once again, the Jazz are just hoping to get back into the playoff picture after a tough 2013-2014 campaign and will be banking on the continued development of Burke and Kanter to achieve that.
Tip-off tonight is at 8:00 at Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City.