NBA Betting – Houston Rockets at Toronto Raptors
Houston Rockets at Toronto Raptors (-2, 208 o/u)
Both the Houston Rockets (50-23, 23-13 away) and Toronto Raptors (43-30, 25-13 home) are going to make the postseason. But the teams are trending in opposite directions heading into tonight’s game (7:30 PM Eastern at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto).
The Raptors have won just six of their last 19 games and only remain in top spot in the Atlantic Division due to the ineptitude of the other four teams.
The Rockets, on the other hand, are 7-3 in their last ten and have taken over first place in the vaunted Southwest Division from the Memphis Grizzles. Their 99-91 victory over the Wizards last night was their fourth in a row.
Houston got by the Wizards despite having a host of players sidelined )Patrick Beverley, Terrence Jones, Donatas Motiejunas, and Kostas Papanikolaou).
“It’s nice to win the games, but it would be really nice to get healthy,” said coach Kevin McHale. “That’s our biggest thing.”
Toronto’s recent rough patch has dropped the team from second to fourth in the Eastern Conference, 1.5 games back of Chicago for third, and two games up on fifth-place Washington. If the Raptors don’t turn things around quickly, they’ll find themselves hitting the road in the first round of the postseason.
The team staunched the bleeding last time out, downing the lowly Lakers 94-83 on Friday. Toronto had to solider on without injured point guard Kyle Lowry (back spasms), whose health has been a key factor in the team’s struggles. Big-man Jonas Valenciunas stepped up in Lowry’s absence, scoring 19 points and grabbing seven boards.
Someone will likely have to up his game again tonight, as Lowry remains questionable to return against Houston.
The Raptors are currently two-point favorites for tonight’s tilt while the game total is at 208. Toronto has covered the spread in three of their last four games, but Houston won and covered the only meeting this season (98-76). If Lowry is unable to go, the Rockets and the points looks like the better option, even though they played yesterday.
(Photo credit: michalkajzerek (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
