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The Lakers open a five-game road trip against Houston on Saturday, giving the already bonded team a chance to get even closer. 

"Opportunities like that are great for our team to just grow, learn from each other, build with each other and, of course, it's just really going to help our chemistry on the floor," Dwight Howard said at Friday's practice.  

It will be the first time that the Lakers play Houston this season. 

The Lakers have the top record in the Western Conference at 33-8, while Houston (26-14) is in fifth-place. The Lakers also  have the best road record in the league at 17-3.

The Rockets lost their last two games to Memphis and Portland, teams that have lost more games than they've won. 

But Howard was quick to point out just how tough the Rockets can be with superstars James Harden and Russell Westbrook. 

"Obviously, [Harden] is a guy who can get you 40, 50 points pretty easy," Howard said. "Then you have Westbrook who is dynamic going to the basket, finishing around the paint, getting rebounds, getting assists. Those two guys are very tough to stop, and then they have a lot of shooters, and then they have bigs who rebound. They've got a really good team."

Anthony Davis, who has missed four-straight games because of a gluteus maximus contusion, is questionable for Saturday. Rajon Rondo (non-displaced fracture of the right ring finger) is also questionable. Alex Caruso (concussion) is probable. 

There was some drama amongst these teams before they even stepped on a court together. 

Rockets' general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests on Oct. 4 before the Lakers' two preseason games against Brooklyn in China, causing a fallout between China and the NBA that ensnarled the Lakers. 

LeBron James later said that Morey "was either misinformed or not really educated on the situation," adding that "so many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually."

When asked about James' comments at Friday's practice, Lakers' coach Frank Vogel made it clear that he just wants to focus on basketball.  

"To me, that was a long time ago and we're just concentrating on game 42," Vogel said.