The Portland Trail Blazers play host to the Houston Rockets at Moda Center on Friday.

The Rockets (27-35) look improved this season, but their road form is embarrassing. Houston has a 6-24 record outside of Toyota Center, and it's hard to believe a team with this much talent can play that poorly on the road. This is one of the few chances where they're going to be road favorites, and you'd have to bet on them with the way Alperen Sengun is playing. The big man had a career-high 45 points two games ago and followed it up with 23 points, 19 rebounds and 14 assists in their most recent outing. Comparing anyone to Nikola Jokic is blasphemy, but if there's any young center in the NBA with a similar profile, it's Sengun.

The Trail Blazers (17-44) were expected to have a rough season, and it's certainly been that. Portland enters this matchup losing 16 of their last 21 games. It's no surprise when peeking into the training room because Deandre Ayton, Jerami Grant, Malcolm Brogdon and Scoot Henderson have all been missing games recently. They needed that core to stay healthy when they parted ways with Damian Lillard and CJ Mccollum, but this rebuild looks like it's going to be a long one. It has allowed Anfernee Simons to take over as the primary playmaker, and he's flashed moments of brilliance this season. Getting Henderson back this weekend is what really matters, though, because they need to see what this first-round pick can do in an extended role.

These teams have played just once this year, with Portland winning an overtime thriller on January 24, 137-131. The Trail Blazers have won seven of their last nine games over the Rockets in total.