{"id":11622,"date":"2010-12-17T18:51:33","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T23:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11622"},"modified":"2010-12-17T18:51:33","modified_gmt":"2010-12-17T23:51:33","slug":"nba-picks-ats-memphis-grizzlies-at-houston-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-picks-ats-memphis-grizzlies-at-houston-rockets-11622\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Picks ATS: Memphis Grizzlies at Houston Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memphis Grizzlies at Houston Rockets
\nDecember 17th, 2010 at 8:35 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Houston -4
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Houston -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 203
\nCurrent Total 206
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Houston -175 \/ Memphis +155
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Houston -145 \/ Memphis +125<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Rudy Gay has proven himself to be worth every penny of the max contract he signed this past summer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Memphis comes into tonight’s game hot, having won their last four games against Charlotte, Portland, the Clippers, and Phoenix.\u00a0 Wednesday night they obliterated the Bobcats, winning 113 to 80.\u00a0 NBA oddsmakers may favor the Rockets because Memphis is a dismal 4-9 on the road, and Houston, despite their 10-15 record, is 7-4 at home.<\/p>\n

The Rockets recently acquired promising and versatile swingman Terrence Williams <\/strong>from New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cTerrence is a very talented and competitive player who allows us additional flexibility with our lineup,\u201d general manager Daryl Morey told the Rockets\u2019 official website. \u201cHe has an all-around offensive game along with a defensive mindset and ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams should add a spark to the Houston lineup, as they are without point guard playmaker Aaron Brooks<\/strong>.\u00a0 Backup point guard Kyle Lowry<\/strong> has played admirably in Brooks’ absense, but it hasn’t been enough to make the Rockets very successful, though they have gone a respectable 6-4 over their past ten games.\u00a0 What’s worse, however, is that the Rockets found out that they are likely without Yao Ming<\/strong> for the rest of the season if he opts for surgery.\u00a0 It might be the end to his young NBA career.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Memphis’ past 5 games and it has gone UNDER in 7 of their last 9 on the road.\u00a0 The Grizzlies have lost their last 5 games to Houston and have lost their last 5 on the road in Houston as well.\u00a0 Memphis is also 2-4 ATS over their last 6 in Houston.<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 6 of Houston’s last 8 games and they have won 5 consecutive games at home.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 13 of their past 19 at home.<\/p>\n

Key matchups for tonight’s game:
\n
\nZach Randolph vs. Luis Scola<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scola has been nothing short of amazing this year and seems to be a lock to make his first all star team.\u00a0 The Argentine forward is averaging 21 points per game and 9 boards a night and has been a bright spot for the Rockets in what has otherwise been a disappointing season.\u00a0 He’ll face the powerful black-hole-on-offense Zach Randolph.\u00a0 Randolph made his first all star team last season and like usual he is putting up impressive statistics, but Memphis still sits two games below .500.\u00a0 They recently decided to move high scoring shooting guard O.J. Mayo to the bench, placing a larger scoring burden on Grizzlies starters.
\n
\nRudy Gay vs. Shane Battier<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rudy Gay has proved all doubters wrong after receiving a max contract this past summer.\u00a0 He’s averaging a career high 21.0 points per game to go along with 6.1 boards, 2.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks, filling up the stat sheet every night.\u00a0 Battier is one of the best defensive wingmen of the past decade and will have as good a chance as anyone at slowing down the red hot Gay.\u00a0 He’ll attempt to keep Gay off the three point line where he is shooting a blistering 41.6%.\u00a0 Battier won’t pose much of a problem for Gay on the offensive end, but can’t be left open either, as he is an effective 35% from downtown, mostly on shots from the corners.<\/p>\n

Despite Memphis being on a four game winning streak NBA basketball point spreads somewhat inexplicably favor the Rockets.\u00a0 Again, it is mostly a case of the road team being an underdog, but Houston will have their work cut out for them in tonight’s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memphis Grizzlies at Houston Rockets December 17th, 2010 at 8:35 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Houston -4 Current Line:\u00a0 Houston -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 203 Current Total 206 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Houston -175 \/ Memphis +155 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Houston -145 \/ Memphis +125 Memphis comes into tonight’s game hot, having won their last four games against Charlotte, Portland, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[831,2069,3354,2068,4129,4176,290,1319],"class_list":["post-11622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-houston-rockets","tag-luis-scola","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-rudy-gay","tag-shane-battier","tag-terrence-williams","tag-yao-ming","tag-zach-randolph"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11623,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11622\/revisions\/11623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}