The Houston Rockets travel to Arizona to face the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena on Friday.

The Rockets (33-18) are trying to re-define what small-ball means in the NBA. That's evident when you see that they shipped off Clint Capela at the trade deadline, getting Robert Covington for him in a crazy four-team trade. While adding Covington as a three-and-D guy is obviously a huge boost for a club that fires up three-pointers at will, it leaves them with no centers. In fact, they're projected to start a 6'6" P.J. Tucker at center from here on out. While he is one of the best defenders in the league, that's leaving his hands full having to face guys like Nikola Jokic and Anthony Davis in the playoffs. That means James Harden and Russell Westbrook will really have to step up their games and it'll be fascinating to see what they look like over the final few months with such a unique style of play.

The Suns (20-31) enter this matchup in the midst of a four-game losing streak. That had a lot of people talking about them making some moves on Thursday's trade deadline but they stayed pat with their young core. A team with Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Kelly Oubre Jr and Ricky Rubio is plenty good to achieve the eight-seed in the west but they just keep falling farther and farther away from that goal. That makes it yet another lost season for this disappointing organization and it's a wonder how much longer Booker wants to hang around with the constant struggles of this franchise. In any case, this is a talented enough team to play spoiler over the final two months and it's sad that its come to that yet again.

These teams have played twice this season, with Houston winning both outings. That actually gives the Rockets 13-straight wins over the Suns in total dating back to December 2016. In addition, Houston has also won 20 of their last 22 games over them in total dating back to 2013.