{"id":13970,"date":"2011-03-08T18:43:38","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T23:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13970"},"modified":"2011-03-08T18:43:38","modified_gmt":"2011-03-08T23:43:38","slug":"shootout-in-the-desert-houston-rockets-at-phoenix-suns-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/shootout-in-the-desert-houston-rockets-at-phoenix-suns-betting-preview-13970\/","title":{"rendered":"Shootout in the Desert: Houston Rockets at Phoenix Suns Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets AT Phoenix Suns<\/strong>
\nMar 8, 2011 at 9 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Phx -5.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Phx -4<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 216.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 218<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Phx -210 \/ Hou +180<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Phx -175 \/ Hou +155<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Grant Hill will see time at PF tonight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Phoenix and Houston are both in playoff contention, but as it stands right now, both are on the outside looking in.\u00a0 Phoenix is 2 games behind Memphis for the 8th spot in the West, and Houston is a game behind Phoenix, 3 games behind Memphis.\u00a0 It has to be a slight redemption for Nash, who at the beginning of the season said the Suns “Had no realistic chance” at winning an NBA Title.\u00a0 While that assessment may have been correct, at least they will have a chance to if they can make the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Things will be tougher for the Suns though.\u00a0 They recently found out that Channing Frye’s shoulder injury will cost him 2 to 3 weeks of play and he’s crucial to the Suns’ attack offensively, \u201cHe\u2019s the one guy that we really can\u2019t afford to lose,\u201d Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. \u201cHe\u2019s been great for us, \u2026 Hopefully, it\u2019s going to be something that\u2019s short term.\u201d\u00a0 One possibility for stretches is that Phoenix utilizes a twin tower lineup of Robin Lopez & Marcin Gortat.\u00a0 Grant Hill will also see time at power forward, but the main plan is to utlize Hakim Warrick as Frye’s main replacement for the time being.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Houston is 7-1 SU in their last 8 games and they are 7-1 SU In their last 8 on the road.\u00a0 Houston is 0-4 SU in their last 5 games against the Suns and they are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games against Phoenix.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER In 5 of Houston’s last 7 games against Phoenix and the total has gone UNDER In 7 of Houston’s last 10 games on the road against the Suns.\u00a0 Houston is 1-4 SU in their last 5 games on the road against Phoenix and the Rockets are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 road games against the Suns.<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 4 of Phoenix’s last 5 games and Phoenix is 5-2 SU in their last 7 games.\u00a0 Phoenix is 9-4 SU in their last 13 games at home and 2-4 ATS in their last 6 at home.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 4 of Phoenix’s last 6 games at home and the total has gone OVER in 5 of Phoenix’s last 7 games against the Rockets.\u00a0 Phoenix is 5-0 SU in their last 5 games against the Rocketrs and they are 4-1 SU in their last 5 games at home against the Rockets.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Phoenix’s last 10 games at home against the Rockets.<\/p>\n

Key Matchups:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kyle Lowry vs. Steve Nash<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lowry recently became “the man” at point for the Rockets.\u00a0 After taking over for Aaron Brooks following a Brooks’ injury earlier in the year, Lowry assumed a time share at the point guard spot with Brooks.\u00a0 Eventually, however, it became clear to Rockets’ staff that the team’s offense was more fluid and dynamic with Lowry in as the playmaker.\u00a0 The result was that the team shipped out Brooks for backup Goran Dragic at the trade deadline, a move that indicated to Brooks that he was going to be the team’s permanent starter moving forward, and that he wouldn’t have to look over his shoulder anymore.\u00a0 Lowry is now averaging 12.5 points per game, 6.5 assists, and 3.9 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Nash will present a huge challenge for Lowry, but Lowry is a good defender and has an uncanny ability to keep opposing point guards in front of him on defense.\u00a0 Lowry is also good at filling passing lanes and getting steals, but Nash doesn’t force a lot of bad passes (unless “risky” always means “bad”).\u00a0 Nash has been as good as ever and doesn’t really show any signs of slowing down and will press Lowry to the limits defensively.<\/p>\n

Kevin Martin vs. Vince Carter<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Half Man, Half Retired” as he is now known has been less than “amazing” as he has entered his twilight years.\u00a0 Now dependant upon fade away jumpers and ill advised three point shots, Carter is no longer very effective or consistent offensively.\u00a0 The same cannot be said of Kevin Martin.\u00a0 Martin is playing efficient and dynamic basketball and getting to the free throw line a lot, a good sign for any shooting guard who relies on both his outside shooting and his ability to draw fouls both on perimeter defenders or big men at the rim.\u00a0 Martin’s scoring average is the highest it has been since 07-08 and the same holds true for his field goal percentage.\u00a0 While Martin looked to be closed to finished as a player in 09-10 when he played only 24 games, he has come back to re-form a nice NBA career.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s game does look to be high scoring, as indicated by NBA oddsmakers.\u00a0 Both teams look to get out and run a lot and the score should be well over 100 for both teams (thus the 218 total).\u00a0 Defense won’t be at a premium and the team that can get out and run the most efficiently will win tonight’s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets AT Phoenix Suns Mar 8, 2011 at 9 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Phx -5.5 Current Line:\u00a0 Phx -4 Opening Total:\u00a0 216.5 Current Total:\u00a0 218 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Phx -210 \/ Hou +180 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Phx -175 \/ Hou +155 Phoenix and Houston are both in playoff contention, but as it stands right now, both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[831,577],"class_list":["post-13970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-houston-rockets","tag-phoenix-suns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13970","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=13970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13972,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13970\/revisions\/13972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}