Rockets at Timberwolves
The Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves will be without their starting point guards when they meet Wednesday in Mexico City. Ricky Rubio suffered a severely sprained left ankle in Minnesota’s loss to the Orlando Magic on Friday and could be sidelined up to two months. Patrick Beverley of Houston is battling a hamstring strain and will be re-evaluated Friday.
The Rockets are also expected to be without starting power forward Terrence Jones, who has missed the last three games with a right leg contusion and is also scheduled to be reevaluated later this week. The good news is All-Star center Dwight Howard returned to practice Monday after missing Saturday’s loss against the Warriors with flu-like symptoms. Timberwolves guard Kevin Martin should be motivated to play well against the Rockets, a team that sent him to Oklahoma City two years ago in a deal that brought James Harden to Houston.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, ESPN, CSN Houston.
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (6-1): Houston leads the league with an average of 13 made 3-pointers a game this season, leaving Portland a distant second at 10.4. Trevor Ariza, in his second stint with the Rockets after averaging a career-best 14.9 points with the organization in 2009-10, is averaging 6.6 attempts a game from beyond the arc and has connected on 47.8 percent of his tries. He has cooled off significantly the last two gamesby missing on 10 of 11 attempts from long range.
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (2-4): Minnesota became the first NBA team in nine years to start two teenagers when they sent Zach LaVine onto the floor with fellow 19-year-old rookie Andrew Wiggins in Saturday’s loss to Miami. LaVine faces a tall order trying to fill Rubio’s shoes, as he started just one game at UCLA last season before declaring for the NBA Draft. The Timberwolves didn’t have much success with their rookie out of UCLA last season, as Shabazz Muhammad played so poorly he was sent to the D-League for a stretch.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Rockets are 5-0 when Harden scores at least 40 points.
2. The Timberwolves featured seven international players from seven different countries on their opening-night roster.
3. Martin, who still owns the Western Carolina program record with 42 consecutive made free throws, has converted 25 straight heading into Wednesday’s game.
PREDICTION: Rockets 114, Timberwolves 102