The Golden State Warriors enter play tonight at 16-22 ATS in their first 38 games of the 2018-19 NBA season, just a half-game better than New Orleans’ 16-23 spread record. More recently, the Warriors are 3-8 ATS in their last 11 and they welcome a red-hot Houston Rockets team tonight as 8.5-point favorites. Houston is 10-1 SU and 9-1-1 ATS in its last 11 games.
- The Rockets are 10-1 SU and 9-1-1 ATS in their last 11 games.
- The total has gone UNDER in the Rockets’ last six games vs the Warriors (avg. combined score: 196.17).
- The Warriors are 1-8 ATS in their last nine games at home.
Rockets vs Warriors Game Center
No Paul, No Problem
Chris Paul has missed the last five games with a hamstring injury but that hasn’t ... wait for it ... hamstrung Houston’s ascent to fourth place in the Western Conference. The Rockets are 5-0 SU and 3-1-1 ATS during CP3’s absence and have taken down some pretty good teams during this stretch – San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Boston, New Orleans and Memphis.
Houston will also be without third-leading scorer Eric Gordon at Oracle tonight. He missed the Memphis game and has been ruled out again with a knee injury.
James Harden is having an insane season, so that makes swallowing the Paul and Gordon losses a little easier. The veteran Arizona State Sun Devil is averaging 33.3 points per game and has scored 29 points or more in 12 consecutive games. He’s been over 40 points in four consecutive games.
Warriors Getting Back to Normal
Golden State dealt with some injury woes in November and December but the roster is essentially fully healthy and getting back to normal. The defending champs are 10-4 in the last month while Steph Curry seems to be regaining his MVP form.
December was Golden State’s best month defensively this season, allowing 110.9 points per game against. Its offense saw a bounce-back from scoring 111 points per game in November to 114 points per game in December. They’re still a long way off from the 125 points per game they scored in October.
However, normal hasn’t referred to them covering spreads as the favorite, going just 3-8 ATS in their last 11 games overall and 1-8 ATS in their last nine home games. In the meantime, the Rockets are 7-0 SU and ATS in their last seven games vs teams with winning records.
My Pick for Tonight
There’s no way I’m not taking the red-hot Rockets at +8.5 tonight. This is just the seventh time this season that Houston has been the betting underdog and the first time it’s been higher than a 4.5-point dog.
Houston is on too hot a run and the Warriors are too poor a spread bet for me to not take 8.5 points in this matchup.
