NBA Playoff Betting – (2) Rockets at (1) Warriors (Game 5)

Houston Rockets at Golden State Warriors (-10.5, 216 o/u)

The Houston Rockets (56-26, 26-15 Away) are 4-0 facing elimination in the 2015 playoffs, and they’ll look to stay alive for one more night when they visit Oracle Arena tonight to face the Golden State Warriors (67-15, 39-2 Home), in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals (9:00 PM Eastern).

The Rockets won three in a row when their backs were against the wall facing the Los Angeles Clippers, and won on Monday 128-115, powered by 45 points from MVP runner-up James Harden, who is averaging 32.6 points per game in this series.

“Our season comes down to winning one road game,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said to the Associated Press. “That’s not going to be anything new.”

Golden State’s number one goal is to have MVP Steph Curry healthy after he had terrible fall in the second quarter of Game 4 and had to leave the game. Curry was eventually cleared to come back to the and scored 23 points in 31 minutes, but his team dropped the first in the series.

“It was all minor stuff compared to how it looked,” Curry told AP after Game 4. “But I’ll get some good rest (Monday night) and be ready to go … since it happened to now, nothing has gotten worse.”

Despite Houston trailing 3-1 in the series, they have covered the spread three times as an underdog.

The Warriors are 1-5 ATS in their last six including two tight games at home against Houston in which they were heavily favored. The Rockets are 7-3 ATS in their last ten games following a win, and 6-1 ATS in their last seven games overall.

Golden State will close out the series, but it won’t be easy for them. 10.5 points is too large of a spread against a desperate Houston team.

Pick: Rockets +10.5.

(Photo credit: 2O (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)