The Houston Rockets open the playoffs tonight against the Utah Jazz tonight at Toyota Center. Both teams come in red-hot since the All-Star break and feature the top two records during that time frame.
Last year, these two teams met in the second round and the Rockets won 4-1. However, the teams look a little different than they did at this stage last season. For one, Houston is without Trevor Ariza and its cadre of veteran post-deadline buyouts. This season, they have a couple of veteran pre-deadline buyouts, Austin Rivers and Kenneth Faried, along with Iman Shumpert and Danuel House Jr.