Turner Network Television has a gem of a NBA telecast tomorrow (March 18) when the Houston Rockets look to continue it’s incredible 22-game winning streak against the league’s best team, the Boston Celtics.

TNT owes whatever good ratings fortunes the game delivers to Greg Oden’s bum knee.

The rare Tuesday night telecast between the league’s hottest team and the team with the NBA's best record  was set last December.

The network had originally scheduled the Portland Trailblazers-Phoenix Suns game for tomorrow night’s prime-time slot, but Oden’s season-ending knee injury at the time mitigated the overall appeal of that contest.

TNT successfully convinced the league to switch its telecast to the Boston-Houston game to take advantage of growing fan interest in the dominant Celtics and the team's acquired stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.

Houston just happened to be where the Celtics were playing that night. Now fans will be tuning in to see the Rockets, who have the longest winning streak of any team since Wilt Chamberlain’s Los Angeles Lakers won a record 33 games during the 1971-72 season.

But while December’s scheduling move looks fortuitous for TNT now, it seemed like disastrous one for the drama network just over a month ago.

Despite the loss of Oden, the young Trailblazers have played exciting and winning basketball. The team still has a chance – albeit slim -- of making the playoffs in the tough Western Conference.

Early in February Phoenix added one the league’s premiere attractions in Shaquille O’Neal to an already ratings-friendly Suns team, further boosting the appeal of the Phoenix-Portland contest.

If that wasn’t enough, three weeks ago Yao Ming, arguably the Rockets’ most popular player, was lost for the season after breaking a bone in his foot. At that point, TNT’s game trade couldn’t have looked any worse than if had come from the New York Knicks’ executive offices.

But with the Rockets riding the second longest winning streak in NBA history, TNT execs look like savvy fortunetellers again and should draw a significant number of eyeballs to tomorrow night’s telecast.