Rockets Won't Have to Face Anthony Edwards in Friday's Wolves Game

On Thursday, the Houston Rockets faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder for their second matchup of the season against the defending champs. The first matchup, which took place on opening night, was a nail-biter.

It came down to the wire and essentially boiled down to missed free throws by the Rockets. Houston lost in double overtime, due in large part, to bad games from both Tari Eason and Reed Sheppard, who combined for 12 points on 4-of-17 shooting from the field, six turnovers and 3-of-11 from long-range.

Thursday’s game wasn’t nearly as close.

Houston lost 111-91, despite dominating the glass, by a 60-44 margin. Houston’s formula of nabbing offensive rebounds by the bunches held true as well, as they grabbed 23 offensive rebounds to Oklahoma City’s seven.

But it didn’t matter.

In part, because they continued their recent trend of missing 3-point shots, shooting 29.2 percent from three, whereas the Thunder made 39 percent of their triples.

The Rockets have now lost four of their last five games and are 3-5 in the month of January.

The good news is that they have a quick chance to wash off the stench of the Oklahoma City loss, as they play the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, which is their fourth back-to-back of the season.

The bad news is that Houston is 0-3 in back-to-backs on the season.

This game will be much different (and relatively easier, in theory) as Wolves superstar guard Anthony Edwards won’t be in uniform, due to foot maintenance.

Edwards has had nagging foot soreness, as a result of an earlier toe infection in his right foot. Edwards has carried a questionable injury designation/tag throughout the month of January.

The All-NBA guard missed the Wolves’ Tuesday matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks as well, and Minnesota proved victorious, winning 139-106.

The Wolves were also without All-Defensive center Rudy Gobert in that game, as he was serving a one-game suspension.

So it wouldn’t be wise to pencil this game in as an automatic victory without Edwards. Besides, the Wolves are 5-3 without Edwards this season.

In other news, the Wolves will also be without Terrance Shannon, which isn’t news, as he’s been out of the lineup for Minnesota since Christmas.

As for the Rockets, they will have two more back-to-back games this month, including next Saturday against the Detroit Pistons and the following Thursday (the 29th) against the Atlanta Hawks, in what has been a relatively back-loaded schedule.