The gist: The Rockets visit the hapless Wizards at the Verizon Center. At 1-11, the Wizards are losers of all six road games and most recently dropped a home-and-home to the Sixers.
Key matchup: Chase Budinger vs Chris Singleton
After a string of up and down games, Budinger made noise in their overtime win against Portland, scoring 16 points in the first two quarters to finish with 18. His matchup against Singleton is a distinct advantage if he realizes it from tipoff and makes use of that edge for 48 minutes.
X-factor: Samuel Dalembert
The Haitian Sensation needs to push JaVale McGee out of the basket area and if is unable to do so, would be wise to fouling him, as the latter is 45% from the stripe. Dalembert will have to produce more than the usual boards and provide guys like Lowry and Dragic the screens necessary for them to penetrate to the rim.
Code Red: Andray Blatche (sore right shoulder) and Ronny Turiaf (broken left hand) will be no-shows in this afternoon’s matchup.