Newly acquired guard Russell Westbrook is expected to make his debut with the Houston Rockets in one of this week’s two preseason games in Saitama, Japan.
As part of his integration, Westbrook actively participated with the rest of the Rockets in an intrasquad scrimmage Sunday in Tokyo.
““I’m always in favor of trips like this,” Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni said when asked what he expects out of the Japanese series, as captured by English language newspaper The Japan Times.
Because I think it’s good for the team to bond. Japan’s a beautiful place to be. So it’s going to be enriching to the players off the court, on the court, playing in front of a different crowd. So there’s a lot of benefits. And then practices are practices. We practice here, practice in Houston. It’s all the same. So we’ll get good basketball work, we’ll get good bonding. It’s a win-win.
Several minutes of footage and highlights from the scrimmage can be viewed below, including numerous clips of Westbrook — the league’s 2017 Most Valuable Player (MVP) — moving quite well.
The Rockets will face off with the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors on Tuesday, Oct. 8 and Thursday, Oct. 10 at the Saitama Super Arena, which can seat up to 36,500 fans.
Those are the first NBA games in Japan since the Seattle SuperSonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder) and Los Angeles Clippers played in two regular season games at the same arena in 2003.
Both games will tip off at 7 p.m. local time, which is 5 a.m. in Houston.
