Portland Trail Blazers vs. Houston Rockets: Preview, injury report, and how to watch details

The Portland Trail Blazers prepare to battle a Houston Rockets team with just nine available players. With storylines in abundance, here’s a look at the preview, injury report, and watch details.

If recent reports hold water, the Saturday night showdown between the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets could be one between teams poised to get really familiar in the future.

2017-18 NBA Most Valuable Player James Harden made a few additions to his catalog of preferred teams to be traded to, including the Portland Trail Blazers in the most recent list. While it remains unclear as to whom exactly Portland would even offer in such a situation, this Opening Week duel should, at the very least, be considered an audition of sorts.

The Rockets will be a difficult team to gauge, given their revolving door or star power thus far. In the preseason, the team focused heavily on welcoming in new additions Christian Wood, DeMarcus Cousins, and John Wall, as they awaited Harden’s arrival.

But in tomorrow’s game, the Rockets will not only be without the latter two, but will be without at least five players due to safety protocol. Houston already had its season tip-off against the Oklahoma City Thunder postponed on Dec. 23.

They head into the Portland duel with just nine available players. Two of those will be undrafted rookies.

Still, if the Blazers’ recent struggles suggest anything, it’s that no opponent, proven or unproven, can go overlooked. They were sent to the drawing board after a humbling 120-100 home loss to the Jazz, in which Utah had an answer for every adjustment Terry Stotts and the Blazers attempted defensively, and more importantly, outworked them for most of the night.

The stats to know:

• Portland does have proven schemes that have worked to their benefit against James Harden-led teams. During their most recent matchup on the Orlando campus, Portland worked a “diamond” defense — a soft zone press defense designed to force Harden to give the ball up quickly — for 32 possessions.
• Harden’s 22.5 points per game against Portland was the second-lowest against opponents in 2019-20. More importantly, he was held to just 6.2 free throw attempts.

They’ve employed similar layouts to get the ball out of his hands in the past, too. With how shorthanded Houston is, Portland using that strategy against them tomorrow could be a gamebreaker.

Assuming Houston follows what Utah did in the season opener with Damian Lillard, the edge could be found in whichever team runs the more sound, organized defense.

Just like the rest of us, Vegas is unsure of this matchup too, with no odds for the game yet. Here are a few more details worth knowing.

How to follow the action:

— Date: Saturday, December 26th
— Time: 7:00 pm PT
— How to watch: NBATV, or FuboTV
— How to listen: NBA League Pass Radio or Rip City Radio 620 AM

Injury report, per CBS Sports

— (POR) Anfernee Simons, hamstring (game time decision)
— (POR) Nassir Little, health and safety protocols (game time decision)
— (POR) Zach Collins, ankle (expected to be out until at least Jan. 20)
— (HOU) Chris Clemons, Achilles (out for season)
— (HOU) DeMarcus Cousins, quarantine (expected to be out until at least Dec. 31)
— (HOU) John Wall, quarantine (expected to be out until at least Dec. 31)
— (HOU) Eric Gordon, quarantine (expected to be out until at least Dec. 28)
— (HOU) Mason Jones, quarantine (expected to be out until at least Dec. 28)
— (HOU) Ben McLemore, quarantine (expected to be out until at least Dec. 28)
— (HOU) Kenyon Martin Jr., quarantine (expected to be out until at least Jan. 4)

Projected starters:

— POR — Damian Lillard (G), CJ McCollum (G), Derrick Jones Jr., (F), Robert Covington (F), Jusuf Nurkic (C)
— HOU — James Harden (G), David Nwaba (G), Danuel House Jr. (F), P.J. Tucker (F) Christian Wood (C)