NBA Playoff Betting – (1) Warriors at (2) Rockets (Game 4)
Golden State Warriors (-4.5, 213 o/u) at Houston Rockets
The Golden State Warriors (67-15, 28-13 Away) dominated Game 3 of the Western Conference finals from start to finish and with the Houston Rockets (56-26, 30-11 Home) against the ropes, they’ll look to deliver the knockout blow tonight, at the Toyota Center (9:00 PM Eastern).
MVP Steph Curry was outstanding again in the 115-80 win on Saturday night, scoring 40 points, including seven 3-pointers. Curry has made 64 three-pointers this postseason; a league record.
“It’s easy for us to stay hungry because none of us have really experienced this before or accomplished really anything,” Curry said to the Associated Press after Game 3.
Golden State will want to put a stamp on their first Western Conference title since 1975 and start a likely Finals matchup against a hobbled Cleveland team as soon as possible.
The worst thing the Warriors could do is give this Rockets a window especially after Houston came back from a 3-1 deficit last round against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“We’ve got to stay positive,” Dwight Howard told the AP. “It’s that negative energy that can go from one person to the next, and we just seemed to fold. We don’t want to be the team that folded under pressure.”
James Harden, had only 17 points in Game 3 after he recorded 28 and 38 in the first two at the Oracle Arena. Howard added 14 for a team that shot a dismal 33 percent from the field. At the other end, Houston’s defense has allowed 108 points-per-game, a number that won’t send any franchise to the NBA Finals.
The Rockets covered the spread in the first two games in the series but failed as a 1.5 point favorite on Saturday. Houston is 1-4 ATS in its last four home games against Golden State, and 0-8 SU in its last eight games when playing the Warriors anywhere.
Pick: Warriors -4.5.
(Photo credit: Jose Garcia (Flickr: Dwight Howard And Chandler Parsons) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. 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.
