NBA action on Christmas day and we will see the Houston Rockets travel to the AT&T Center in San Antonio to take on the San Antonio Spurs. The game has a start time of 8:05 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN. Current odds have San Antonio listed as 7.5 point favorites, while the total sits at 210
Analysis: The Rockets fell on Monday, at home to the Dallas Mavericks, 111-104, and have alternated wins and losses over their last eight games. The Rockets hope to have star guard James Harden available for this one. Harden has missed back-to-back games with a sprained ankle. Harden has become an elite scorer in the NBA and he had a tremendous game against the Spurs earlier this year (31 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists). Dwight Howard dropped 19.5 ppg with 16.0 rpg against the Spurs last season as a member of the Lakers and posted a double-double (13 points, 11 rebounds) when he faced them last month. This year Howard is averaging 18.7 ppg o and 13.3 rpg overall, while Harden has scored 23.9 ppg and grabbed 4.6 rpg this year. Chandler Parsons was big with 25 points and five assists earlier this season against San Antonio, but has averaged only 13.0 ppg over nine career games in this series. PG Patrick Beverley will be out 4-to-6 weeks after undergoing surgery on his right hand.
San Antonio has the fourth-best record in the NBA but one of its six defeats was against the Rockets – a 112-106 home loss on Nov. 30. The Spurs still rely on PG Tony Parker to lead their team and he had 27 points to go along with eight assists and six rebounds earlier this season against the Rockets. He averaged 24.5 ppg in four meetings last season and has 17.5 ppg average in 44 career starts vs the Rockets. Manu Ginobili has not had quite as much experience against Houston (37 games), but he has been solid, scoring 14.9 ppg, while making 39.6% of his shots from beyond the three-point line. Marco Belinelli scored 18 points while going 4-for-6 from behind the arc in the Spurs' loss to the Rockets this season and he is second in the NBA with 51.1% accuracy from 3-point range.
Pick: Going to look to the Under in this one. Rocket games have been very high scoring, but The Spurs play excellent defense at home, and their home games have averaged just 201.3 ppg. This one should not eclipse 205 points.
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