{"id":410746,"date":"2026-01-16T11:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T11:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/410746\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T11:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T11:14:08","slug":"durant-rockets-to-host-randle-and-the-timberwolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/410746\/","title":{"rendered":"Durant, Rockets to host Randle and the Timberwolves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> (27-14, fourth in the Western Conference) vs. Houston Rockets<\/a> (23-15, sixth in the Western Conference)<\/p>\n

Houston; Friday, 9:30 p.m. EST<\/p>\n

Rockets -3.5; over\/under is 223.5<\/p>\n

BOTTOM LINE: Minnesota visits Houston in Western Conference action Friday.<\/p>\n

The Rockets are 12-14 against Western Conference opponents. Houston ranks third in the Western Conference with 53.2 points per game in the paint led by Alperen Sengun<\/a> averaging 13.7.<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves are 14-10 against conference opponents. Minnesota ranks second in the Western Conference shooting 37.4% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

The Rockets average 11.3 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.1 fewer makes per game than the Timberwolves allow (12.4). The Timberwolves are shooting 48.6% from the field, 2.4% higher than the 46.2% the Rockets’ opponents have shot this season.<\/p>\n

TOP PERFORMERS: Amen Thompson<\/a> is averaging 18.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 5.1 assists for the Rockets. Kevin Durant<\/a> is averaging 27.9 points over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n

Julius Randle<\/a> is averaging 22.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.7 assists for the Timberwolves. Naz Reid<\/a> is averaging 17.4 points over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n

LAST 10 GAMES: Rockets: 5-5, averaging 108.2 points, 51.5 rebounds, 22.5 assists, 7.7 steals and 5.9 blocks per game while shooting 44.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 107.1 points per game.<\/p>\n

Timberwolves: 7-3, averaging 124.1 points, 45.9 rebounds, 28.7 assists, 8.6 steals and 5.3 blocks per game while shooting 51.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 115.1 points.<\/p>\n

INJURIES: Rockets: Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a>: day to day (ankle), Fred VanVleet<\/a>: out for season (acl), Tari Eason<\/a>: day to day (ankle).<\/p>\n

Timberwolves: Terrence Shannon Jr<\/a>.: out (foot), Anthony Edwards<\/a>: out (foot).<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive<\/a> and data from Sportradar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota Timberwolves (27-14, fourth in the Western Conference) vs. Houston Rockets (23-15, sixth in the Western Conference) Houston;…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[197135,352,5050,11951,355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-410746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-197135","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}