The set-up: The 6-5 Houston Rockets lost 105-103 at home last night to the Thunder, led by Russell Westbrook's 30 points, seven rebounds and nine assists. The Rockets return home to Toyota Center for a game tonight against the 7-5 Portland Trail Blazers, who feature one of the highest scoring guards in the NBA, as well. Blazers PG Damian Lillard ranks fifth in scoring at 29.8 PPG plus adds 5.0 RPG and 4.6 APG.

Portland: McCollum (21.7) teams with Lillard to give Portland one of the NBA's top-scoring backcourts but the Blazers have just one other double digit scorer and that's SF Harkless at 11.2 PPG. Portland's key deficiencies are defense and rebounding. Portland ranks 29th in allowing 111.2 PPG and 27th in defensive rating. The Bulls rolled over Portland on Tuesday night at Moda Center, winning 113-88. Chicago managed 19 offensive boards, par for the course with Portland ranking 29th in defensive rebounding rate at 72.3 percent. The Bulls finished plus-18 on the glass.

Houston: James Harden is averaging 28.7 PPG and hadn't scored fewer than 24 this season but struggled through a 4-of-16 outing in Wednesday's 105-103 loss to Oklahoma City. "I still wasn't able to make a couple of passes," Harden told reporters afterward. "I missed shots. Normal game, just didn't make shots, especially down the stretch when we needed to. That was it." Houston has struggled with pace, scoring and shooting percentage in the fourth quarter this season and those issues were front and center in their loss last night. The Rockets had only 13 fourth-quarter points and were held scoreless between a dunk with 6:26 remaining and a three-pointer just prior to the buzzer. They missed nine consecutive shots during that stretch, adding to what has been a prevailing problem for an offense that oftentimes scores at will. "We have that problem a little bit," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said of holding the ball too long down the stretch of close games. "I thought we got good shots. It might not have been your classic move the ball, move the ball, move the ball but I thought we had some looks. The 3s they had looks at we had them and they made them and we missed them. Sometimes it just comes down to you've got to make shots and we just didn't do it."

The pick: The bad news here for Portland is that Harden rarely has back-to-back poor performances and he should also be primed to out-duel Lillard. Houston also expects that Patrick Beverley will make his season debut tonight. Beverley underwent left knee surgery during the preseason but is set to return. Beverley's impact is so much greater than the 10.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game he provided last season. He is the team's best individual perimeter defender and his influence on that end of the court has been sorely missed. The Rockets are a 10* play.