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NBA Pick: 503 Phoenix Suns @ 504 Houston Rockets
Rating: 3 units - Single Dime Play
Pick: Phoenix Suns (-2) (Play up to -3)
Odds: -107 / 1.93 on Pinnacle Sports OR -110 / 1.91 on 5Dimes OR -103 / 1.97 on Matchbook
Detailed Write Up:
This is a horrible spot for Houston. If it wasn't enough for them to play without four of their potential starters (Howard, Jones, Canaan, Beverley), they have now lost Papanikolaou as well. Beverley will be back tonight, but I believe he is playing because the Rockets really need an extra body on their backcourt, but he'll be far from 100%. This is a back to back spot for the Rockets, as they played a game at Minnesota last night that went to overtime. This forced the veteran Terry to play 43 minutes and given how short their roster is at the moment, I'm sure that Terry will have to play major minutes once again.
This will give a huge edge to Phoenix's backcourt. The Suns backcourt formed by Dragic and Bledsoe is incredible quick and they will pound Terry's and Harden's poor defense time and time again. If Minnesota was able to score 23 fast break points against Houston last night, Phoenix as the best transition team in the league will absolutely run over Houston tonight. The Suns are coming from a relatively easy win at Dallas last night and they seem to be in excellent form at the moment. Their main weakness is their poor interior defense, but with Howard injured, Houston lacks a decent frontcourt player to explore that. Therefore, I believe Phoenix should get another comfortable win tonight and so, I'll take them in here.