The Houston Rockets play the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday. Tipoff is at 10:30 p.m. ET. Watch the live stream below.
Houston (43-20) is third in the Western Conference, but no more than four games separate them from the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh seeds. After a 102-100 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies last Wednesday, the Rockets bounced back with two straight wins over the Detroit Pistons and the Denver Nuggets, 103-93 and 114-100, respectively.
Rockets star James Harden tallied 28 points and seven assists, pushing his season-scoring average to 27.1 points per game - 0.3 points per game behind the league's leading scorer, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook.
Portland, meanwhile, is one of the teams breathing on Houston's neck. The Trail Blazers (41-20) is one game behind Houston after having their five-game winning streak ended on Saturday with a 121-113 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Saturday was Portland's first game without guard Wesley Matthews, who tore his Achilles tendon on Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks, and the defeat showed how important he was to the team.
"(Matthews) does it all. He can defend, he can post up, he can down the open 3," Timberwolves veteran Gary Neal said after his team's win, via ESPN. "They're definitely going to miss him."
Veteran Arron Afflalo, whom Portland acquired on Feb. 19, was promoted to a starter to replace Matthews and scored 14 points against Minnesota before fouling out.
Watch the live stream HERE.
