WATCH Warriors vs. Rockets Live Stream Online: NBA 2015 Conference Rankings, Playoff Updates

Basketball's back for the official 2015-2016 NBA season, so get ready, MstarsNews readers!

The Golden State Warriors battle it out on the court against the Houston Rockets in Week 9 of the regular season on Thursday, December 31 at 7:00 p.m. EST from the Toyota Center in Texas. Read on to see where fans can watch and listen to a live stream of the highly-anticipated New Year's Eve basketball game online and catch up-to-date feeds and coverage on highlight plays and scores.

Now heading into mid-season, Golden State maintains the impressive top spot in Marc Stein's official NBA power rankings for ESPN.com, while Houston only lags a bit behind (out of a total 30 teams):

Warriors (1): "Rewind two months, and you'll recall some of us opining about how hard it would be for the Warriors to join the Michael Jordan Bulls (1995-96 and 1996-97 editions) as the only teams in league history to win 65-plus games in consecutive seasons. Now look: Steph Curry's Warriors only need a pedestrian 39-14 finish over their final 53 games to pull that off."

Record: 29-2 (1st in Western Conference).

Rockets (12): "We finally saw what this team is capable of in home wins over the Clippers and Spurs within the span of a week. Then we saw regression to the lackadaisical nature that put the Rockets in such a hole in Saturday night's loss at New Orleans. For more, we refer you to these tweets for the latest James Harden and Dwight Howard trends."

Record: 16-17 (7th in Western Conference).

Tonight's game will be broadcasted live on local sports channels RTSW and CSBy.

For fans who want to try out a free live stream (which may mean downloading a torrent), click here. Also try this or another option.

Also check out NBA TV for more schedules and game updates.

ESPN, ESPN Scoreboard, and NBA.com are all good sources for up-to-date game coverage and feeds.

More radio listening options for Warriors and Rockets.

Official NHL team websites: Warriors and Rockets.

Enjoy the exciting b-ball game from Texas this evening, and always stick with MstarsNews for additional NBA gameday coverage this week. Which Western Conference rival will snag the big win tonight?