Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets

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This is the last night before the league simply stops. No games for over a week, nothing to follow, nothing to argue about, and a building full of people who are aware that the next time they are in it the season will have changed shape. That awareness gives a February Thursday a strange weight it has not earned. Houston play fast enough to make a flat night impossible, which helps. The other thing worth knowing is that the roster you watch tonight is not necessarily the one that comes back - the trade deadline has passed but the buyout market has not, and squads are quietly different on the other side of a break. Go to the last one before the gap, and spend the week off arguing about what you saw. Parking and traffic both behave on a February Thursday, which is a small thing until you compare it with trying to do the same journey on a Friday in December.