Rockets continue Texas two-step Friday night at home vs. Spurs
Rockets continue Texas two-step Friday night at home vs. Spurs
Friday, November 27, 2009
By: "Reload" Joe Freda | reload.mysbrforum.com
After being demolished at home on Wednesday by the Mavericks, expect the Houston Rockets to come out strong tonight when they host the San Antonio Spurs.
The Houston Rockets got carved up by the Dallas Mavericks on Thanksgiving eve in a crushing 130-99 loss Wednesday night. Texas two-stepping concludes tonight for Houston when the San Antonio Spurs visit the Toyota Center and they are coming in hot with three blowout wins in a row.
The last time the Rockets got beat bad by the Mavericks, they came out firing on all cylinders when taking the court again with a big win. This handicapper looks for the same tonight against a Spurs team who still has no road victories yet this season.
While Western Conference teams can take their toll on each other all season in the NBA, some of the fiercest games in the league come within the Texas triad of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Teams from around the league visiting these cities on road trips often find it difficult to win even once a season when faced with several games in the Lone Star State.
The intensity on the court can get even greater when the Mavericks, Rockets, or Spurs are matched up against each other and every battle feels like it is Game 7 of a playoff series. While the Rockets and Spurs have both played the Mavericks twice this year, tonight will be the first time that Houston and San Antonio meet. The Spurs are looking for their fourth win in a row and first road victory of the season while the Rockets look to bounce back from humiliating loss to the Mavericks.
Although the Spurs have a 7-6 winning record this year, their three wins in a row that they come in with were all at home as heavy chalk. Blowing out the Warriors, Bucks, and Wizards will end up feeling a lot easier than going on the road to Houston tonight and facing an opponent as fuming as the Rockets will be after Wednesday’s 31-point loss.
San Antonio’s last road game was a trip to Dallas and they lost in overtime to the Mavericks 99-94 in a hard fought contest. It was there that Manu Ginobili was lost to injury early on and he has been sidelined for the team ever since. The Spurs have gone 3-1 both straight up and against the spread without Ginobili, but tonight’s game against another cross-state rival is the kind of spot where the depth he provides will be missed.
It is also worth noting that during the three game winning streak of the Spurs, the defense continued giving up an increasing amount of points sequentially surrendering 84, 98, and 104 every other night this week. With the Rockets putting up an average of 103 points a game this season, the Spurs may not have answers on the road tonight for weapons like Trevor Ariza and Luis Scola.
Ariza has averaged over 18 points per game this season and put up double figures every time against the Spurs last season while with the Lakers. He mustered 20 against the Mavericks on Wednesday even in a sizeable defeat shooting 8 of 15 from the field and adding two blocked shots.
Scola has been a big contributor to the Rockets this year with an average of 10 rebounds per game leading to the Rockets being second in the NBA in offensive rebounds averaging 13 per game. With one of the main weapons of the Spurs being defensive rebounds, Scola should be a solid equalizer taking some of those opportunities away tonight.
Bookmaker opened the line for this game favoring the Rockets by 1 point and it has stayed there at press time. Being the hotter team, I would expect the Spurs to likely get most of the betting in this matchup so keep a close eye on a line service like SBRodds.com to get the best number on the Rockets.
Although the Spurs will get their share of road victories this year, expecting the first to happen in Houston is a tall order – even for 6-11 Tim Duncan. Stay out of the red on Black Friday, and take the Houston Rockets to blast off again after hitting rock-et-bottom on Wednesday.
Last edited by SBR Jonelyn; 04-10-15 at 11:49 AM. Reason: image does not exist
Originally Posted by SexyMit
