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Red-hot Warriors host surging Rockets on Wednesday
By: Freddy Wander - StatFox
Published: 12/10/2014  at  2:12:00 AM
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HOUSTON ROCKETS (16-4)

at GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (18-2)

Tip-off: Wednesday, 10:35 p.m. ET
Line: Golden State -10.5, Total: 203

Two of the hottest teams in the NBA, the Rockets and Warriors, do battle on Wednesday night.

Houston has had had no trouble in the first part of the season and comes into this one as the victor in seven of its past eight games SU (5-3 ATS). Surprisingly, the Rockets were underdogs in four of their victories over that time, as they are scoring 109.0 PPG over their past four contests. They earned another solid win when they hosted the Suns as 2-point underdogs on Saturday and came away with a 100-95 victory. In the contest they had three players with double-digit rebounds, and out-rebounded the Suns 57-40. They didn’t shoot too well though, hitting a mere 40.7% FG while committing 22 turnovers, but held Phoenix to a meager 34-of-93 shooting (36.6% FG). Golden State is remains the team to beat in the NBA, and brings an amazing 13-game winning streak into this tough matchup. The club is 9-4 ATS during the surge as it is defeating opponents by an average of 13.4 PPG. Its most recent win came on the road against Minnesota as 14.5-point favorites when it outscored the Timberwolves 102-86. The Warriors made 46.2% of their attempts in the game and continued to show their improved defense while holding Minnesota to 36% shooting and 19 turnovers. Hitting the road should not give this Rockets team too much trouble, as they are 8-1 SU (5-3-1 ATS) in away games this season, while Golden State is 7-1 SU (5-3 ATS) in front of its home fans. Over the past three seasons, the Rockets have managed to go 5-3 (SU and ATS) in this matchup while the Warriors were able to take the most recent two meetings. Houston’s offense was horrible in those two contests, one of which was a 98-87 loss at home earlier this season on Nov. 8, while shooting worse than 37% in each game and making just 19-of-72 three-point attempts (26%). Trends show that the Rockets are 26-18 ATS (59%) after covering three of their previous four games ATS in the past three seasons while Golden State is an impressive 11-2 ATS (85%) after two straight games where it had 10 or more steals in the same timeframe. Injuries have come in bunches to Houston, as C Dwight Howard (knee), PG Isaiah Canaan (ankle), SF Kostas Papanikolaou (knee) and PF Terrence Jones (leg) are all expected to miss this game, while SG James Harden (back) is listed as probable. The Warriors will continue to be without PF David Lee (hamstring), while C Andrew Bogut (knee) is questionable.

Can the Rockets put an end to the Warriors' 13-game win streak? For the answer, connect to The Platinum Sheet for all the Expert picks throughout the entire 2014-15 season. While StatFox Forecaster has a stellar 62% ATS record (61-38) in featured games this season, the five experts have also caught fire with a collective 70% ATS mark (30-13) in NBA Best Bets since Nov. 29. StatFox Gary is 7-1 ATS during this timeframe to give him a 61% ATS record (19-12) in NBA Best Bets this season, while StatFox Brian is 8-1 ATS since Nov. 29 to improve to 58% ATS (18-13) in NBA Best Bets this season. Also during this surge, StatFox Scott and StatFox Dave are both 6-3 ATS.

After starting off the season with some potent offensive numbers, the Rockets have cooled off with just 98.9 PPG (12th-worst in league) while making a putrid 42.8% of their shots (4th-worst in NBA). Where they have been very impressive is on the defensive side of things where they rank second while allowing opponents to score a mere 94.1 PPG against them (2nd in league) on 42.6% shooting (3rd in NBA). SG James Harden (25.2 PPG, 6.6 APG, 6.3 RPG, 1.9 SPG, 1.2 BPG) has had to really carry the team on his back with the injuries piling up, and while he did not score much (15 points) in their most recent game, he grabbed 12 rebounds while dishing out seven assists and collecting three blocks and two steals on defense. He blew up in his three games against the Warriors last season with 33.0 PPG, 6.0 APG and 4.3 RPG, and managed 22 points with seven rebounds and seven assists in the game this season. SF Trevor Ariza (14.2 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 1.7 SPG) has done a nice job replacing Parsons, and has done better in rebounding (7.8 RPG) over the past five games with Howard out. He hit a mere 3-of-16 shots for seven points while adding 11 rebounds in the loss to Golden State this year, and has averaged 11.2 PPG (45% FG) and 5.3 RPG over 22 career games (13 saves) against them. SG Jason Terry (8.9 PPG, 1.2 SPG) has taken on a much larger role of late and has been solid over his past four games with 16.5 PPG, 4.5 APG and 2.3 SPG.

Golden State has been one of the NBA's more prolific offenses with 106.9 PPG (4th in league) behind 48.1% shooting (2nd in NBA). The Warriors have also continued to be solid from behind the arc by hitting 37.7% of their threes (4th in league). What has really made this club a championship contender is its improvement on the defensive side of things, as the team is allowing a mere 95.7 PPG (6th in NBA) on a league-best 40.9% shooting. PG Stephen Curry (23.1 PPG, 7.7 APG, 5.1 RPG, 2.0 SPG) has become an elite player in the NBA and was huge in the game against Houston earlier in the season with 34 points, nine boards, five assists and four steals. Overall, he has faced the Rockets 15 times in his career while collecting 20.2 PPG (46% FG, 43% threes) and adding 6.7 APG. SG Klay Thompson (21.2 PPG, 1.3 SPG, 45% threes) has made half of his threes (16-for-32) over the past five games while getting 20 or more points in each of his past four contests. In his career against the Rockets (11 games, 10 starts), Thompson has averaged 15.2 PPG (40% FG) and 3.4 RPG, as he has made just 32% of his three-pointers. SF Draymond Green (13.3 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 1.2 SPG, 1.1 BPG) has really stepped up in David Lee’s absence with 17.2 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 1.8 SPG and 1.2 BPG over his past five contests. He had 14 points and eight rebounds against this opponent earlier in the season while struggling with fouls (five) and turnovers (four).


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