Los Angeles @ Houston preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 10, 2017 ) Houston 96, L.A. Clippers 125

The winning streak is finally over for the Houston Rockets, and Chris Paul is back on the injury report. The Rockets will try to pick themselves up after a rare loss and win for the 15th time in 16 games when they host Paul's former team, the Los Angeles Clippers, on Friday.

Houston won 14 straight after Paul returned from a knee injury but watched the streak come to an end with a 122-116 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday as Paul left in the fourth quarter with a left adductor strain. Paul is considered day-to-day and is in danger of missing the date with Los Angeles, with which he earned First-Team All-NBA honors in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and led to the playoffs in each of his six seasons there. The Clippers won't have one of their biggest acquisitions from that trade around for the game either, as point guard Patrick Beverley is done for the year with a knee injury and is one of three Clippers starters out of the lineup. Guard Austin Rivers is the one benefitting most from Beverley's absence and went for 21 points on Wednesday as the Clippers knocked off the Phoenix Suns 108-95 to snap a three-game slide.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN, FS Prime Ticket (Los Angeles), AT&T SportsNet Southwest (Houston)

ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (12-18): Milos Teodosic was brought on to take over Paul's role as the primary distributor and dealt with his own injury while missing 22 games due to foot problems. The 30-year-old rookie is beginning to settle in and handed out a season-best eight assists in 27 minutes on Wednesday. Teodosic is averaging just 8.3 points on 32.8 percent shooting but is beginning to get the hang of throwing lobs up to center DeAndre Jordan, who went 5-of-7 from the floor on Wednesday and finished with 12 points and 20 rebounds for his sixth straight double-double.

ABOUT THE ROCKETS (25-5): Even if Paul is out, Houston still has an MVP candidate in James Harden, who kept the team in the game on Wednesday by scoring 51 points and handing out nine assists. "You can't stop Harden," Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball told reporters. "You can try to slow him down, it's the best you can do. Make everything hard for him. Try and get him as tired as possible. But as far as stopping him, you can't stop him." Teams aren't having much luck slowing down Harden, who leads the NBA in scoring (31.9 points) while ranking third in assists (9.03).

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Clippers SF Danilo Gallinari was diagnosed with a partial tear in his left glute muscle and will be out indefinitely.

2. Rockets C Clint Capela (heel) sat out Wednesday and is day-to-day.

3. Houston took two of three from Los Angeles last season despite Harden being limited to 23.3 points, 8.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds in the meetings.

PREDICTION: Rockets 123, Clippers 103