The Dallas Mavericks play host to the Houston Rockets at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

The Rockets (5-9) pulled off a miracle win on Friday, beating the Detroit Pistons, 103-102. What made that victory so miraculous was the fact that Jerami Grant seemingly hit a game-winning lay-up at the buzzer to down the Rockets. It was called off because it was after the buzzer though due to a review and that helped the Rockets snap their three-game losing streak. What made that win even more surprising is the fact that they did it without John Wall and Christian Wood. DeMarcus Cousins started in that Saturday win and provided 15 rebounds and seven assists, despite shooting just 2-of-16 from the field. He's shown that stat-stuffing ability all year and one has to wonder why he's not getting more playing time. A lot of it has to do with the emergence of Wood but it's time to get these guys on the floor together to see what they can do.

The Mavericks (8-7) had an impressive win themselves on Friday, beating the San Antonio Spurs, 122-117. That followed up an inspiring win over the Indiana Pacers too, with Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis balling out. The next step is to get all the COVID guys back, with Dorian Finney-Smith, Josh Richardson and Maxi Kleber still out. All of those absences have left this rotation very thin and it's been nearly two weeks since all of those guys started missing games. It's unclear when they will return but that should be right around the corner by doing sheer math. Getting hot before those guys show up is important and it makes this is a team to fear when all of them eventually do return.

These teams played once already this season, with Dallas prevailing, 113-100. Prior to that, the Rockets won four of their previous five games over the Mavs in this series.