NBA: Portland Trail Blazers at Minnesota Timberwolves
NBA: Portland Trail Blazers at Minnesota Timberwolves Reuters

The Minnesota Timberwolves are looking to avoid a season-high five game skid on Monday when they face the Houston Rockets, which are aiming for a sixth straight victory, longest for the James Harden-led squad this season.

No thanks to their inconsistencies during crunchtime, the Minnesota Timberwolves are still out of the playoff picture at this point of the season. The recent string of injuries won’t help either as they have already lost a couple of starters in center Nikola Pekovic and shooting guard Kevin Martin to different injuries as well as Kevin Love in the last game.

Meanwhile, the Rockets have been getting contributions from all over the floor to help out Harden and center Dwight Howard for the five-game winning streak that includes victories over quality teams (San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns) and lottery-bound teams (Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks).

Patrick Beverley had 15 points and 3 blocked shots in their most recent game and Jeremy Lin came off the bench to score 18 markers. Harden returned from a two-game absence to average 24.3 points and 2 steals in his last three games while Howard is playing like an MVP in the last two logging in 30.5 points and 13.5 rebounds.

The bit of good news for Minnesota is that the All-Star power forward is set to return against Houston and they can certainly use his scoring in trying to keep up with the Rockets, which has averaged 108.6 points per game in this current five-game run.

The T'Wolves have been competitive in their last three games but couldn't come up with the win losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 106-97; New Orleans Pelicans, 98-91 and Portland Trail Blazers, 98-91.

Without three of their five starters, Minnesota went to Ricky Rubio (25 points and 9 assists) and Corey Brewer (26 points and 7 rebounds) in the losing effort.

Can the Timberwolves snap the skid? Or will the Rockets continue their surge?

Watch the Houston vs. Minnesota match-up via NBA League Pass.