The San Antonio Spurs (22-8) will host the Houston Rockets (16-12) tonight at the AT&T Center in a Southwest Division showdown.
Tonight's game will mark the third time these two teams will meet. In their first two meetings the Spurs have bested the Rockets. In their first meeting, the Spurs won a wire-to-wire contest (114-92) over the Rockets at San Antonio (12/7/12). In their second meeting, the Rockets were defeated 134-126 in overtime (12/10/12), with the Spurs snapping Houston’s three-game home winning streak in the series.
The Spurs are coming off a 100-80 home win over the Raptors. The Spurs were paced by Tim Duncan's 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 block shots.
The Rockets are coming off a 87-84 win over the Timberwolves. The Rockets rallied from 14-points down in the third quarter to take the win at Minnesota. With the win, Houston has now won five games straight.
And as the Spurs put their 7-game home winning streak on the line versus the Rockets who also have their 5-game winning streak on the line tonight, here are five things to watch for during the game:
• Houston and San Antonio rank first and second in points per game at 105.3 and 104.9, respectively.
The Spurs are giving up 88.3 points over their last three games.
• Houston's Jeremy Lin, who stands 10th in the NBA in steals per game (1.75) through Dec. 26, has recorded seven games this season with at least three steals.
