Sunday night NBA and we will see the New Orleans Pelicans travel to the Toyota Center to take on the Houston Rockets. Free Pick to follow. The game has a start time of 7:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised locally. Current Vegas betting odds have the Rockets listed as 4.5 point favorites, while the total is set at 200.
Analysis: The New Orleans Pelicans bounced back from a bad 36 point road loss to the Memphis Grizzlies by beating Phoenix by 15 at home on Friday night. Thanks to recent struggles by the Oklahoma City Thunder they Pelicans have taken the 8th playoff spot from them, despite the fact that both teams have identical 43-36 records. New Orleans has gone 9-1 ATS in their last 10 Sunday games and 15-5-1 ATS in the last 21 meetings, but just 1-4 ATS in their last 5 road games vs. a team with a winning home record. The Pelicans have been an average offensive team this year, ranking 16th in scoring (99.1 ppg), 10th in shooting, 4th in 3 point shooting and 18th in FT shooting. Defensively the Pelicans have average this year, ranking 13th in points allowed (98.4 ppg), 20th in defensive FG% and 2nd in 3 point defense.
The Houston Rockets have been playing good ball at the moment as they have won 10 of their last 14 games, but two of those loses were in their last 2 games and were to the San Antonio Spurs. The Rockets are now 53-26 overall, including 28-11 at home, but they have given up the 2nd spot in the Southwest because of those two losses to the Spurs. Houston has gone 6-1 ATS in their last 7 after allowing 100 points or more in their previous game and 20-7 ATS in their last 27 games following a S.U. loss, but the favorite is 1-7-1 ATS in the last 9 meetings. The Rockets have be a solid offensive team this year, ranking 5th in scoring (103.6 ppg), 20th in shooting, 15th in 3 point shooting and 27th in FT shooting. Defensively the Rockets have average this year, ranking 17th in points allowed (100.6 ppg), 13th in defensive FG% and 1st in 3 point defense.
Pick: Both teams need this game and that has me looking at the Under here. The teams have met 3 times this year and no game has put up more than 194 and I'm not sure this one will either. The Pelicans have played solid defense down the stretch as they have allowed just 93.4 ppg in their last 8 games. The Rockets have not been that strong defensively this year, but they will be taking on a rather average Pelicans offense that scores just 96.5 ppg on the road and that has scored just 91.6 ppg in their last 5 games. Houston can score, but i don't see it in this one vs a Pelicans team that has played great defense of late. Lower 190s here.
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