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Sunday night Houston will travel to Denver to play the Nuggets at the Pepsi Center. The game will be a back-to-back game for both teams. Usually the team that has to travel is at a disadvantage in back-to-back games but both teams will play in a night game Saturday night and travel to Denver for Sunday’s contest.

Saturday, Houston (9-6) will be at home to take on in-state rival San Antonio and Denver (10-6) will conclude a so far successful four game winning streak with a game in Minnesota.

Wednesday Houston saw its three-game winning streak snapped with a heartbreaking one point loss at home to Indiana. Still the Rockets have won five of their last seven games. Ron Artest and Yao Ming tied for the team lead in points with 19 against the Pacers. The duo led a late rally that just fell short for the Rockets.

Houston has actually played much better on the road (7-3) than at home (3-3). Denver, on the other hand, enjoys the Rocky Mountain air more than dining out. The Nuggets are 5-2 at the Pepsi Center and 5-4 away from it.

Denver also saw their winning streak broken up in their last time out. The Nuggets lost a rare home game to the New Orleans Hornets on Thanksgiving 105-101. The loss was only the Nuggets’ third in 10 games since Chauncey Billups was acquired from Detroit. In the loss Billups contribute a dozen points and five assists.  Carmelo Anthony led Denver with 24 points and pulled down six boards.

Houston and Denver played four times last season with each side claiming two victories. Interesting enough the road team won all four games last year. This will be their first meeting of the 2008-2009 Season.

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Two Eastern Conference teams that have failed to find consistency this season will meet up in Philadelphia Sunday evening when the wounded 76ers welcome in the battered Bulls into the Wachovia Center.

The Bulls (7-9) are 2-4 in their last six contests and lost at San Antonio Wednesday night 98-88. Ben Gordon did his best to try and lift Chicago to victory in consecutive games for the first time since November 13-15, but ultimately the Spurs were too much. Gordon led Chicago in points with 23 points. Drew Gooden also tried his best by netting 20 points and leading the squad with 12 boards.

The Bulls truly love home cooking. They are 5-2 in the Windy City, but 2-7 on the road, where they will be Sunday evening. Philadelphia (7-9) also enjoys its city’s cheese steaks as they have posted a 5-3 home record in an otherwise dismal early season.

Like the Bulls, the Sixers enter this contest a loser of their last game, but unlike Chicago, Philadelphia has not alternated wins and losses as of late, they have just lost. The 76ers will be looking to avoid a four-game losing skid when they play the Bulls. In addition to the three losses in a row, the team has also lost four of six.

Friday night, the 76ers were the latest victim in the Celtics’ hit parade when they lost in Boston 102-78. Many of the starters played rather poorly Friday, including Samuel Dalemport who recorded a goose egg in points and only took two shots from the field. Elton Brand led all Philly scorers with only 18 and Louis Williams was second with 15 off the bench.

Philadelphia took three of the four games between the two franchises last year with the 76ers winning both games at home. The Bulls have lost five of the last eight games played to Philadelphia and last won in the Wachovia Center in 2006.

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The Shaq reunion tour continues. Just over a week ago much fanfare greeted him he faced the Lakers, which resulted in a 105-92 loss. Now he will play his former teammates in Miami, in a place where he won his most recent championship. The sputtering Heat will travel to Phoenix to take on the Suns, who have won three straight.

Lost in the large shadow of Shaquille O’Neal is Shawn Marion. The two players were traded for each other and Marion will also face him former teammates for the first time as he returns to U.S. Airways Center, a place where he was a fan favorite. Expect Marion to get a warm welcome Friday night. And why not? He averaged 18.4 points in his 8 1/2 years in the desert and made four All-Star teams.

With O’Neal, the Suns (11-5) have won three straight and five of their last seven. Phoenix just completed a two-game road trip which brought them wins in Oklahoma City and Minnesota. Wednesday night they bested the Timberwolves 110-102. O’Neal returned from a night off to lead the Suns to victory with his 18 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.

Perhaps he was gearing up to get even with his former mates. In the first games played against the Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers after departing, he averaged 24.5 points and 14.5 rebounds.

The Heat (7-8) fell under .500 with their second straight loss and third loss in four games Wednesday when they were crushed at Portland 106-68. The loss also dropped Miami to 2-5 on the road, while Phoenix is only 4-3 at home.

The Heat and Suns split their two game season series last year with both teams winning on their home court. The Heat won the most recent game last December 10. The victory snapped a five-game Suns winning streak against the Heat.

While Marion gets his chance to play at U.S. Airways Center tonight, O’Neal will have to wait to until March to get his chance to go back to Miami. Chances are great, however, that he will not get the same type of ovation Marion expects.

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If a team has only one loss in the season after 13 games, it can obviously be said that the only bad game that team had was in their only loss. But the opponents that have been mowed down in the other 12 games always look for a silver lining and claim they played the team the hardest. The team in question, of course, is the Los Angeles Lakers. One of their wins came against the Dallas Mavericks, who have been terribly inconsistent this season.

When the teams met up in L.A. on November 11, the Mavericks were freefalling in the middle of a five-game losing streak, but they got it together and truly gave the Lakers their biggest scare of the season up until their only loss November 14 to Detroit. Los Angeles recovered in that game and won 106-99, but Friday night when Dallas returns to the Staples Center for the second time this season, the Lakers will be facing a totally different Maverick team.

After the Los Angeles game, Dallas (7-7) lost two more but then started to win. Now they will play the Lakers with a chance to extend their winning streak to six games. Their most recent victory was over the Pacers Tuesday night 109-106. The Mavericks had to come back from a 13-point deficit to win the contest and allowed Dallas to go back to the .500 mark for the first time since November 4 when they were 2-2.

In the Lone Star State, the Dallas stars’ have started to shine-and it has nothing to do with hockey. Dirk Nowitzki is averaging 18.8 points and 11.6 rebounds during the Mavs winning streak. Against Indiana Nowitzki scored 24 and rebounded 12 while Jason Terry and Jason Kidd scored 18 points between them in the final four minutes of the game to complete the comeback.

The Lakers (12-1), on the other hand, continue to win despite getting subpar performances from some of their stars. Kobe Bryant, in particular, struggled in Los Angeles’ latest win, 120-93 over New Jersey. Bryant missed 12 of his 17 shots from the field and recorded his fewest points of the season with a dozen.

Where the Lakers excelled, however, was by holding the Nets to 93 points. New Jersey came into the game as the league’s highest scoring team.

The Mavericks will have their work cut out for them to extend their winning streak. Dallas will visit L.A. to take on the Lakers for the 70th time Friday night. In the previous 69, Los Angeles has won 59. Overall the Lakers have won the last four in the series.

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Two teams could not be anymore different in a Friday night matchup of Pacific Division teams. The San Jose Sharks will travel American Airlines Center to take on the Dallas Stars.

The Sharks have been the NHL’s best team all season long. They boast a 18-3-1 record, have 37 points, which are three more than the league’s closest team, the New York Rangers. Regular season success is quite common in northern California as was seen quite well last season when the Sharks recorded their most ever points with 108. But as has been the case in many seasons in San Jose, regular season success does not always transfer into the Stanley Cup playoffs as the Sharks were unceremoniously dumped out of the playoffs by their opponent Friday night, Dallas.

The Stars (7-10-4) reached the Western Conference Finals last season but lost to the eventual cup champion Red Wings. Hockey pundits predicted great things for the Pacific Division as the Sharks and Stars would battle it out for the divisional title, but only one of these predictions has come true.

Dallas is sinking further and further behind San Jose. They currently stand 19 points out of first place and two points out of fourth. They are also tied with two other teams for the lowest point total in the NHL. The Stars need to channel the same magic from the spring when they defeated the Sharks three straight times to go up three games to zero and ultimately secured the series in six games. A win over their rival may snap the Stars out of their funk that has brought them only three wins in the last ten contests.

They do have some positive momentum going into Friday’s game as they defeated Minnesota, on the road, 4-3 Wednesday. The Stars fought back from a 3-1 deficit late in the second period to get the win.

Dallas is only 2-3-3 at home this season and goal tender Marty Turco has struggled at home as well. He has not won in Dallas since October 15 in a span of five games in which the former All-Star has gone 0-3-2 with a 3.96 goals against average.

All three of San Jose’s regulation losses came on the road, but they have still been solid away from home, going 6-3-0. The Sharks have won five straight, including their most recent victory in overtime against visiting Chicago Wednesday night.

The teams met earlier this season, also in Dallas, on November 8 with the Sharks prevailing 2-1.

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A pair of disappointing 4-7 AFC South teams begin playing out the string this week as they face off this Monday night when the Jaguars travel to Houston to take on the Texans.

Both teams have been disappointments, but especially the Jaguars. While the Texans were supposed to be better, few people gave them a chance to contend in the stacked AFC South. But the Jaguars were supposed to be the dark horse and possibly the Super Bowl representative from the AFC. Instead, the Titans and not the Jaguars, are about to unseat the Colts in the AFC South. With their loss to Tennessee two weeks ago, Jacksonville was officially eliminated from the division. They lost their second straight home game to Minnesota 30-12 last week and have all but been eliminated from postseason contention.

The Jaguars have lost four out of their last five. The only victory during that stretch was a road win over the winless Detroit Lions. David Garrard continues to have a disappointing season after last season’s terrific year. Last week Garrard threw for 317 yards and a touchdown but also threw two interceptions. On a pair of turnovers, Jacksonville was losing 14-0 to Minnesota within the first five minutes of last week’s ball game which necessitated the Jaguars throw the ball. This meant few carries for the running back tandem of Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor who collectively carried 9 times for 24 yards with no scores. Jones-Drew was Garrard’s top receiver last week at 9 catches for 113 yards. But when your running back is your top receiver, it usually means you lose that game.

The Texans put a stop to a three game skid when they played a solid road game and won 16-6 over the Browns. Sage Rosenfels has had a tough few games filling in for injured starter Matt Shaub, however he did have a very good game in Cleveland. Rosenfels went 24 of 32 for 275 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions.

The Jaguars won the first game between the divisional rivals earlier this season 30-27. Prior to that game the Texans had won three of the last four games.

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Riding two big road victories, the top teams in the NFC North are on a collision course for the Sunday night game for this week in Minneapolis. The Chicago Bears take their 6-5 record against the also 6-5, and co-division leading Minnesota Vikings.

Chicago dominated the lowly St. Louis Rams on the road last week 27-3. The game Sunday night will be the third of a three-game Bears road trip away from Soldier Field. The Bears lost the first game two weeks ago at Green Bay and look to avoid losing another divisional road game this week against the Vikings.

Kyle Orton played in his second game after coming back from an injury. He still played rather tepid and completed less than half of his passes for 139 yards and a touchdown. Orton did not need to do much against the Rams as rookie of the year candidate Matt Forte ran for a career high 132 yards on 20 carries. Forte is closing in on 1000 yards rushing for the season and scored two more touchdowns last week to run his season total to six.

Last week was also good for the Vikings when they traveled to northern Florida for the first time ever. In their first ever game in Jacksonville, Minnesota dominated the listless Jaguars to win 30-12. Adrian Peterson reached the end zone once, but he failed to gain 100 yards for the second straight game after he had reached the century mark in four straight contests.

The teams met up earlier this year in Week 7. In the 48-41 loss in Chicago, Peterson ran for 121 yards on 22 carries and reached the end zone twice. Last season’s rookie of the year has already gone over 1000 yards and has 1180 yards and eight touchdowns.

The Vikings are 4-1 at home this season while the Bears are 3-3 on the road. The Bears are looking to sweep the Vikings to return the favor of Minnesota sweeping them last season.

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Things don’t seem to be getting any easier for the Steelers, but when you hold the distinction of having to play the NFL’s toughest schedule, things tend to not get better. Pittsburgh has weathered the storm quite nicely, however. The Steelers (8-3) are tied for the second best record in the AFC with 8 wins and are still one game in front of Baltimore in the AFC North. The next “big boy” on the Steelers schedule is the New England Patriots.

Pittsburgh will travel to Foxboro, a place where they have not had much success. Their last victory over the Patriots in Massachusetts was in 1997. The Patriots have claimed seven of the last 10 matchups as well, including three straight and six out of the last seven, including postseason play.

Pittsburgh swarmed all over the Bengals at home last week 27-10. Ben Roethlisberger threw for 243 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions against Cincinnati. Big Ben has had a solid season despite being banged up through much of it and missing his first-string running back through a good chunk of the season as well. Roethlisberger has thrown for 2233 yards and 11 touchdowns on the season. Willie Parker, the aforementioned first-string running back has also been hobbled by injuries. He ran for only 37 yards on 15 carries last week and is listed as questionable for the New England game.

Mewelde Moore continues to get the bulk of the carries for Pittsburgh even when Parker is in the lineup. Last week he got the ball 15 times for 56 yards. He will see his carries increase substantially if Parker misses his sixth game of the season.

Matt Cassel continues to improve and impress under center for New England (7-4). In the Patriots 48-28 road victory over the Dolphins, Cassel became only the second New England quarterback to throw for 400 yard in consecutive games, the only other one being Tom Brady. In the last two games, Cassel has completed a combined 60 of his 94 passes for 815 yards, six touchdowns and only one interception.

Cassel will probably not be expecting a third straight 400-yard performance against the Steelers‘ tough defense.

The last time the Steelers beat the Patriots was in 2004 in Pittsburgh.

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The best thing the Redskins can do this weekend is to win. Easier said than done when they welcome in the division leading Giants to FedEx Field. It is imperative for Washington to keep pace with the Giants and, more importantly, the Cowboys.

The Giants (10-1) are three full games in front of both the Redskins and Cowboys. Even if Washington is victorious, they realistically have a slim chance at taking the division. Their more pressing concern is Dallas. The teams split their meetings this season, which means if the teams’ have identical records, which they do now, the deciding factor is conference record. Right now, Washington boasts a 6-3 NFC record against Dallas’ 5-4.

The Cowboys are in an easy portion of their schedule at the moment, they host Seattle on Thanksgiving, and the Redskins must keep pace as it seems more likely only two teams from the NFC East will go to the postseason because the NFC South contains all above .500 teams.

It is doubtful, however, that Washington will have Dallas on their minds when they play New York Sunday. They are looking to avenge the first game of the NFL season in which the Giants made the Redskins look like the worst team in the NFL by winning 16-7. Washington (7-4) recovered and have surprised many by their ability to contend in one of the toughest divisions in the league.

Last week the Redskins put a stop to a two game losing streak by beating the aforementioned Seahawks on the road last Sunday 20-17. Meanwhile the Giants kept on rolling.

New York traveled to their Mecca last Sunday. They went to Arizona, the site of last February’s Super Bowl triumph, and beat the Cardinals 37-29. The Giants did not have their best game both offensively and defensively, but they made the key plays when needed to hold off the West-leading Cardinals to come home riding a six-game winning streak.

The New York Giants gave the Cardinals their first home loss of the season last Sunday and the Redskins hope to do the same thing to the Giants, who are 6-0 at home. They already have topped their home victory total from last season when they went 3-5 at Giants Stadium. Washington has been almost equally as effective on the road, winning all but one of their five road games.

Giants’ running back Brandon Jacobs who missed last week’s game with an injury is still day-to-day.

The teams split their games last season, with each team winning on the road. With the Giants Week 1 victory, New York has won four of the last five and five out of the last seven.

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New Yorkers are getting used to being better than perfection. It’s not that the citizens of the Big Apple need any more arrogance, but their football teams have done some remarkable things over the past year. First the New York Giants took to the road to win three playoff games and then upended the heavily favored and undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII this past February. Since that game the Giants have only lost once and are now tied for the best record in the league at 10-1. Just do not overlook the Jets.

If it was not for the Giants, the Jets (8-3) would be the hottest team in the NFL. By totally dominating the previously undefeated Tennessee Titans 34-13 on the road last week, the Jets at least claimed the honor of hottest team in the AFC.

The Jets return home this weekend to welcome in the AFC West-leading Denver Broncos. The two game road trip they are returning from was supposed to ruin their season, instead it has put them in the AFC East drivers seat. Before dominating the Titans in Nashville, New York also dispatched New England at Foxboro the week before in overtime. The Jets now have won five straight and six out of seven.

The Jets success has had a lot to do with the improvements of Brett Favre. Perhaps the veteran quarterback needed some time to learn the new offense, but he has excelled in it the last few weeks. During the road trip, Favre threw for a combined 51 of 65 for 482 yards with two touchdowns and only one interception. It is probably no coincidence that Favre has gotten hot while Thomas Jones has gotten on track. Jones was just four yards short of 100 yards last week and caught a touchdown pass.

You will forgive them if Favre, Jones and the rest of New York’s defense is salivating for more than just Thanksgiving dinner. The Denver defense has been terrible all season long. The Broncos (6-5) are coming off a humiliating 31-10 home loss to the awful Oakland Raiders last week. However, Denver still leads the division by two games over San Diego who can not get on track this season. The Broncos appear headed for the postseason, perhaps by default and will look to shore up its defense down the stretch with the return of All-Pro cornerback Champ Bailey.

The teams have not met since 2005 in Denver with the Broncos blanking the Jets 27-0. The Jets last win was in 2002 at home.

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