All eyes on James Harden

The 17-9 Houston Rockets are coming off a 115-107 loss to the Detroit Pistons. It has been an up-and-down past couple of weeks too, as they have split their last 12 games.

Nevertheless, the main headline for the Rockets is James Harden and his blistering offense. Whether you enjoy his boatload of free throws or not, he’s been on a scoring tear all season and he’s getting to the line because of his seemingly unguardable style of play. The Beard is pouring in a league-leading 39.3 PPG and also dropped 55 and 55 points in consecutive games this week.

In early December’s 135-133 double OT loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Harden scored 50, which should’ve been 52 had the referees not missed this obvious call:

Along with Harden, as always, is his two, hard-nosed co-starters: Russell Westbrook (22.5 PPG, 8 RPG, 7.3 APG, 1.7 SPG), who rested on Sunday and should be back in action tomorrow, and Clint Capela, who has 15 double-doubles in his last 16 games and has hauled in 17.3 RPG during that span.

The Rockets are 9-4 at home this season.

The cardiac Spurs

The Spurs have suddenly become the cardiac kids. They have needed an extra period in each of their last four games, where they came out as winners in all but one. The most recent was Sunday’s 121-119 win over the Phoenix Suns, as concluded by a Patti Mills go-ahead jumper with just one second left.

The stretch began in the aforementioned two-overtime game against the Rockets. The Spurs rallied from a 16-point deficit with just 7:20 left. Seldom-used, second-year guard Lonnie Walker played the hero as he notched 19 fourth quarter points, including back-to-back three-pointers that helped push the game into the first overtime. He had a team-high 28 points off-the-bench and has averaged 13.8 points on 54.2%-shooting over his last five.

Walker will look to smoothly blend in again with the starters, particularly DeMar DeRozan (21.4 PPG) and Bryn Forbes (11.9 ppg) who both scored over 20-plus in that game as well.

Big man LaMarcus Aldridge (18.8 PPG) missed that meeting due to an injury, so tomorrow will be his first match-up with the Rockets this season.

The Spurs are 3-8 at home this season.

PREDICTION:

The Rockets win courtesy of another sizzling performance from James Harden, who will be on ultimate revenge mode. Expect him to bust the 38.5 point line set for him tomorrow.