{"id":12362,"date":"2011-01-10T19:02:08","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T00:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12362"},"modified":"2011-01-10T19:02:08","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T00:02:08","slug":"tonights-blowout-special-houston-rockets-at-boston-celtics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/tonights-blowout-special-houston-rockets-at-boston-celtics-12362\/","title":{"rendered":"Tonight’s “Blowout Special:” Houston Rockets at Boston Celtics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets AT Boston Celtics
\nJanuary 10th, 2011 at 7:30 PM EST
\nOpening line:\u00a0 Boston -9
\nCurrent Line: Boston -9
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 197
\nCurrent Total: 199
\nOpening Moneyline: Boston -500 \/ Houston +395
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Boston -550 \/ Houston +375<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Garnett is probable for tonight's game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tonight could be the night that KG returns.\u00a0 Boston has been doing okay without him, but having him back will push them back into the elite status that they have attempted to establish thus far in the young season.\u00a0 KG is the anchor and heart of their defense, a defense that is the best in the league, and their 16-2 home record along with that is why NBA oddsmakers have set the line nearly in double digits for tonight’s game.<\/p>\n

Houston hasn’t been tearing it up lately, either.\u00a0 They’ve won just 4 of their last 10 games and have fallen behind Memphis in the standings to sit at 10th in the Western Confernce.\u00a0 Kevin Martin has looked good and Scola has been amazing, but they haven’t had the depth to keep up with teams in the second quarter when most of their starters are resting.<\/p>\n

After a 4 point loss in overtime, Scola voiced his frustrations,<\/p>\n

\u201cSame problems we were having early in the season, we have now.\u00a0 It\u2019s frustrating. We deserved to win this game, but we didn\u2019t know how to close it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their defense has been horrible, giving up 108.4 points per game over their last 7.\u00a0 Boston has the best field goal percentage in the league, so tonight’s game is a recipe for disaster for Houston.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Houston is 0-4-1 ATS in their last 5 games and 0-5 SU in their last 5.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 6 on the road and they are 4-10 SU in their last 14 road games.\u00a0 They are 2-4 SU in their last 6 against the Celtics and the total has gone UNDER In 9 of their last 13 against Boston.\u00a0 They are 7-2 SU in their last 9 in Boston.<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER In 8 of Boston’s last 11 games and they are 19-4 SU in their last 23.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER In 4 of their last 6 at home and they are 11-1 SU over their last 12 at home.\u00a0 They are also 1-4 ATS in their last 5 at home.\u00a0 They are 8-15 ATS in their last 23 games against the Rockets and 1-8 ATS at home vs the Rockets.<\/p>\n

Key Matchup:
\n
\nLuis Scola vs. Kevin Garnett & Big Baby Davis<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Garnett is probable to play, Big Baby may see extended minutes as Garnett works his way back into playing shape.\u00a0 Scola will be an even match for either of them as he is having an excellent year with 20 ppg and 9 rpg.\u00a0 KG is the better defender of the two power forwards, so if he plays it will go a long way towards nuetralizing Scola, but Scola’s good play hasn’t been enough to rescue the Rockets recently, and it’s even more doubtful that it will against a great team like Boston.<\/p>\n

NBA oddsmakers haven’t set the line close for tonight, and with good reason.\u00a0 Houston is 6-14 on the road and as mentioned Boston is 16-2 at home, making this the “blowout special” for tonight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets AT Boston Celtics January 10th, 2011 at 7:30 PM EST Opening line:\u00a0 Boston -9 Current Line: Boston -9 Opening Total:\u00a0 197 Current Total: 199 Opening Moneyline: Boston -500 \/ Houston +395 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Boston -550 \/ Houston +375 Tonight could be the night that KG returns.\u00a0 Boston has been doing okay without him, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":3958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,831],"class_list":["post-12362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-houston-rockets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12362","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=12362"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12364,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12362\/revisions\/12364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}