The Houston Rockets take on the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center on Wednesday night in the season-opening game for each team.

The Rockets endured one of the worst seasons in franchise history during the 2020-21 campaign, finishing with a 17-55 record that qualified as the worst in the NBA. Houston nevertheless will once again be led by Stephen Silas, who did seem to get his team to play hard and even pull multiple upsets against playoff teams last season. Silas will apparently not have one of his best players from last season at his disposal moving forward, however, as John Wall and the team have agreed he will eventually be traded and not play at all for the Rockets. That leaves Kevin Porter, who did a fine job resurrecting his career at the tail end of last season, as the starting point guard, while Eric Gordon, offseason arrival Daniel Theis and Christian Wood will help round out the starting five. There's also plenty of excitement surrounding rookie second overall pick Jalen Green, who'll be entrusted to handle starting shooting guard duties right from Opening Night.

The Rockets will list Danuel House (personal) as questionable for Wednesday's game.

The Timberwolves finished last season in only marginally better shape than the Rockets, with Minnesota's 23-49 mark keeping them far away from the postseason picture as well. Chris Finch begins his first full season as the T-Wolves' head coach with the same core of players from last season, as D'Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns will be at the forefront and Josh Okogie and Jaden McDaniels will serve as complementary options in each forward spot. Veteran offseason addition Patrick Beverley and Malik Beasley are set to serve as Finch's top second-unit assets.

The Timberwolves will be without Beverley (suspension) for Wednesday's contest. Jaylen Nowell (back) and Jordan McLaughlin (groin) will carry questionable tags.

Wednesday's game marks the first of three meetings between the teams this season. The Timberwolves won the three-game 2020-21 series by 2-1 margin.