Two Things to Watch as the Houston Rockets Host the Utah Jazz

Riding a four-game winning streak, the Houston Rockets are finally looking up heading toward the NBA playoffs. There are still six games left in the regular season, but they clinched a top-six seed with the Phoenix Suns' loss to the Charlotte Hornets last night.

The Rockets will avoid the Play-In Tournament and see playoff basketball for the second season in a row, but they're still playing for home court advantage in the Western Conference. Houston is 1.5 games out of the fourth seed, which would be huge considering the likley opponent is the Denver Nuggets.

Without looking too far ahead, the Rockets will face the Utah Jazz tonight for the fourth time this season. At 21-56, they're actively trying to drop games for lottery odds in the NBA Draft, but they've still given Houston problems this year. Utah upset Houston on Dec. 1, dropping 133 points.

With the season series in favor of the Rockets, 2-1, they're heavily favored in this Friday night battle, but Houston has suffered from underwhelming basketball before. Here are two things to watch:

Rebounding Battle

There isn't much that the Jazz have been good at as a team lately, but over the last two weeks, their offensive rebounding numbers have been impressive. In its last seven games, Utah ranks 14th in offensive boards per game (10.6).

Meanwhile, the Rockets have still managed to be spectacular in grabbing second-chance opportunities, even without bruising center Steven Adams. On the season, Houston owns a league-best 38.7% offensive rebounding percentage. Over the last two weeks, the team is second in offensive boards per game (13.9).

With key big men such as Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jusuf Nurkić and Walker Kessler out tonight, the focus within the paint will be on Kyle Filipowski, Oscar Tshiebwe and John Konchar. Those should be easy assignments for Alperen Şengün, Clint Capela and the rest of Houston's frontcourt.

Brice Sensabaugh and Kyle Filipowski

On the offensive end, Sensabaugh and Filipowski are the only players who have produced elite numbers for the Jazz over the last week. In his last four games, Sensabaugh is averaging 21.3 points, four rebounds and 4.3 assists on 54% shooting from the field and 56% from three. He has shown off more isolation scoring since the Jazz took major steps to reset the roster.

Filipowski has been even more consistent over Utah's last four games, putting up 24 points, 9.8 rebounds and four assists a night on 64-44-80 shooting splits.

Amen Thompson will likely be tasked with guarding Sensabaugh, the most effective perimeter player for the Jazz. As for Filipowski, that could be between Şengün, Capela and Jabari Smith Jr.