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Video: Roger Patterson sits down with Tim Yeager at the beginning of the NBA season to talk NBA basketball in the state of Texas.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: James Harden and Luka Doncic, two of the top 4 NBA scorers this season, go head-to-head for the first time this year when the Houston Rockets (11-5) host the Dallas Mavericks (10-5) Sunday afternoon.
The Dallas Mavericks are coming to Houston riding a 4-game winning streak. Through the first month of the season, Doncic is averaging 29.9 points, 10.4 assists and 9.7 rebounds, leading the NBA in triple-doubles (7).
Many members in the National Media recently have compared the 20-year-old's game to Harden. Both are elite-scores, great at getting to the FT line and have lethal step-back threes in their arsenal.
Doncic's has seemed to constantly get himself in the record books. This past Monday night, Luka scored a 42 point triple-double in a win vs San Antonio, becoming the second-youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double that included a 40-point effort. The youngest being LeBron James.
"This guy can do anything he wants to on a basketball court," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said Monday of Doncic. "He's having one of those magical runs right now. It's a phenomenal thing to watch. It's a phenomenal thing to be a part of."
Meanwhile, Mavs big man Kristaps Porzingis after sitting out last season with an ACL injury and beginning this year with just one double-double in Dallas' first 10 games, has now come on strong in the team's past five contests, recording a double-double in four of the five games. Porzingis has also been the Mavs protector of the rim averaging 2.29 blocks a game – 4th in the NBA just in front of Rockets' Clint Capela.
The Rockets will have their hands full Sunday afternoon and need to get back in the win column after dropping their last two games. Sunday's game vs Dallas begins a three-game homestand that closes out the month of November.
Fun Fact via ESPN: Harden and Westbrook are both averaging 20-plus points per game. The last time Houston had two players averaging 20-plus points in a season was 2007-08 with Yao Ming (22.0) and Tracy McGrady (21.6).
It's a great time to be a basketball fan, both north and south of I-45.
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Houston Texans owner Cal McNair said Monday that receiver Tank Dell will make a “full recovery” after he was wounded in a shootout at a Florida restaurant last month.
McNair did not provide details on the nature of Dell's injury, but the team called it a “minor wound” the day after the April 27th shooting, which also injured nine others.
Speaking before the team’s annual charity golf classic, McNair called the situation “frightening” before providing an update on Dell.
“It looks like Tank will make a full recovery,” he said. “We saw him in the office the other day and he looked good, in good spirits. But he’ll have to rehab and get back to where he was.”
Coach DeMeco Ryans was cagey when asked about Dell, refusing to directly answer the question when asked if he expected him to be ready for Week 1.
“Tank should be fine,” he said.
Ryans said that he’s spoken to Dell several times since the shooting and that they had a "good conversation."
Later when pressed about whether he would miss practice time Ryans again deflected.
“I’ve answered all that about Tank — he’ll be all right,” Ryans said.
Dell was drafted in the third round in 2023 after a standout career at the University of Houston. He had 709 yards receiving and set a franchise rookie record with seven touchdown receptions last season before breaking his left fibula in December.
Ryans said in April that Dell had recovered from that injury and would be ready to practice when the team began workouts before he was injured in the shooting.