{"id":12263,"date":"2011-01-07T13:09:02","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T18:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12263"},"modified":"2011-01-07T13:09:02","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T18:09:02","slug":"pro-basketball-handicapping-houston-rockets-at-orlando-magic-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/pro-basketball-handicapping-houston-rockets-at-orlando-magic-betting-preview-12263\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Basketball Handicapping: Houston Rockets at Orlando Magic Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets at Orlando Magic
\nFriday, 1\/7\/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Orlando -10
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Orlando -9.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 207
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 208<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Orlando Magic are heavy favorites in hosting the Houston Rockets at the Amway Center Friday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Houston brings in a 16-19 overall record into this contest and has compiled a 6-13 mark away from home, including a 2-5 record versus Eastern Conference opponents.\u00a0 The Rockets are coming off a disappointing 103-100 loss to Portland on Wednesday despite receiving a season-high 45 points from guard Kevin Martin.\u00a0 \u201cYou can\u2019t just play here and there because you\u2019re going to lose most of the time,\u201d said Martin.\u00a0 \u201cWe just have to be more consistent on both ends of the court and try to pull these games out.\u201d\u00a0 He is averaging 23.2 points and 3.1 rebounds per game on the season.\u00a0 Houston is 6-1-2 ATS following a straight up loss and is nearly a double-digit underdog on the NBA lines page for tonight\u2019s nationally televised contest.<\/p>\n

The Rockets are seven in the all-time series with the Magic, 22-22.\u00a0 Houston is 13-9 at home against Orlando and 9-13 on the road.\u00a0 Ironically enough, the team has started the last three calendar years with a record of 0-3.\u00a0 Offensively, the squad relies heavily on making shots from beyond the arc, ranking fourth in the NBA in 3-point field goal percentage (.386).\u00a0 Houston is also efficient in shooting the rock at the charity stripe, entering tonight\u2019s game seventh in the league by knocking down 78.7 percent of its tried from the free throw line.<\/p>\n

Orlando comes into tonight\u2019s game on a seven-game winning streak and captured a 97-87 victory over Milwaukee on Wednesday, holding the Bucks to just 33 first-half points and 39.3 percent shooting overall.\u00a0 The Magic have turned up the defensive pressure of late, giving up just 90.2 points in the last six games.\u00a0 All-Star center Dwight Howard has been on a tear offensively by averaging 24.7 points and 16 rebounds over the last three games, which is a great improvement from the 12.3 and 10.0 he averaged in the previous three games.\u00a0 Orlando is 6-1 ATS as a favorite.<\/p>\n

The Magic are a solid 14-5 at home and have tallied a 5-2 mark when hosting Western Conference opponents.\u00a0 Orlando\u2019s seven-game winning streak is tied for the longest current streak in the NBA and marks its longest streak since tallying eight straight wins last season from February 28 to March 13.\u00a0 They have an excellent chance of reaching that mark due to recording a 105-37 record at home under current head coach Stan Van Gundy.\u00a0 The Magic have an average margin of victory at the new Amway Center of 15.9 points per contest.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Rockets due to their 7-1 ATS mark in the last eight meetings in Orlando, while the Magic are 4-12 ATS in the last 16 meetings overall.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on the best plays anywhere and let the NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports go to work for you.\u00a0 Get a season package today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets at Orlando Magic Friday, 1\/7\/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Orlando -10 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Orlando -9.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 207 Current Total:\u00a0 208 Houston brings in a 16-19 overall record into this contest and has compiled a 6-13 mark away from home, including a 2-5 record versus Eastern Conference opponents.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[3648,833,3622,831,1197,659,3693],"class_list":["post-12263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-amway-center","tag-dwight-howard","tag-eastern-conference","tag-houston-rockets","tag-kevin-martin","tag-orlando-magic","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12263","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12263"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12265,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12263\/revisions\/12265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}