Houston Rockets Face Tall Order In Sustaining Groove Against Toronto Raptors

Toronto's Fred VanVleet celebrates a basket with teammate Kyle Lowry in the Raptors' 104-99 NBA playoff victory over the Brooklyn Nets — The Toronto Raptors try to deal the Houston Rockets a loss on their own turf on Friday. GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Kevin C. Cox

KEY POINTS

Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green could miss action for the Rockets against the Raptors
The Raptors will try to end their losing skid when they visit the Rockets on Friday
Then Rockets are looking to add the Raptors to their list of victims

The Houston Rockets may be rebuilding, but they are miraculously finding ways to win as they are on a two-game roll and will go for a third one.

However, it will not be easy for Houston.

Houston hosts the tumbling Toronto Raptors on Friday, February 3 at the Toyota Center, a determined squad seeking to return to their winning ways.

The Raptors are unlikely to hand it on a silver platter as they try to bounce back from two consecutive losses.

Toronto is still licking their wounds after dropping a 128-131 decision to the Utah Jazz.

The loss spoiled the triple-double effort of Fred VanVleet, who finished with 34 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists against the Jazz.

Gary Trent Jr. backed him up with 20 markers and three dimes.

"If we're up three at the end of the night, then a lot of these stats look a lot better. We'd be celebrating ... just got to find ways to win and that's really all that matters," VanVleet said after the game.

Toronto is scoring 113.1 points per game and has an offensive rating of 114.5.

The Raptors are also giving up 112.6 points per contest with a defensive rating of 114.2.

On the other side, the Rockets are coming off wins against the Detroit Pistons (117-114) and the Oklahoma City Thunder (112-106).

Against the Thunder, Eric Gordon led the way with 25 points, three rebounds, and three assists.

Tari Eason chipped in 20 points and 13 rebounds coming off the bench.

"Eric tonight was so steady and when we went down five or six he was the one settling the guys down, and that's important," Rockets coach Stephen Silas stated. "That veteran presence ... was huge tonight."

Houston is second to last in the league in team scoring with an average of 109.6 points per game.

Defensively, the Rockets are allowing opponents to score 116.9 points per contest.

The Raptors are -6 favorites to pull off a win against the +6-rated Rockets, and the moneyline set for this game is -245 for Toronto and +205 for Houston.

The game can be watched live on the NBA League Pass and via fuboTV at 8:00 PM ET.