{"id":14773,"date":"2011-04-09T03:46:57","date_gmt":"2011-04-09T08:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14773"},"modified":"2011-04-09T10:45:44","modified_gmt":"2011-04-09T15:45:44","slug":"nba-picks-clippers-rockets-both-look-to-break-two-game-skids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-picks-clippers-rockets-both-look-to-break-two-game-skids-14773\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Picks: Clippers, Rockets both look to break two-game skids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Clippers at Houston Rockets, Toyota Center, Houston, TX<\/strong>
\nSaturday, April 9, 2011, 8:30 pm Eastern, TV:\u00a0 FSPT, KTXH<\/strong>
\nOpening Line: Rockets -7<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line: Rockets -8<\/strong>
\nOpening Total: 213<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total: 215.5<\/strong>
\nMoney Line: Rockets -350 \/ Clippers +290
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Rockets
The Rockets were eliminated from playoff contention on Friday when Memphis won.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Los Angeles Clippers (31-49) and Houston Rockets (41-38) will both try to win for the first time in three games and finish the regular season strong with only a few games remaining.\u00a0 The Rockets (-8) were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Friday when Memphis won to claim the final spot in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

Houston is coming off a 101-93 loss at New Orleans on Wednesday, the second of two consecutive losses on back-to-back nights that essentially sealed the team\u2019s fate with three games left to play.\u00a0 The Rockets failed to cover the spread for the fourth time in five games and blew a 38-21 lead at the end of the first quarter against the Hornets.\u00a0 They were led by Kevin Martin\u2019s team-high 21 points while Luis Scola and Goran Dragic each added 16.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Clippers wrap up a four-game road trip in Houston and will be playing the second night in a row after losing 107-96 at Dallas on Friday.\u00a0 They did not cover the spread for the first time in four games despite a game-high 29 points from Mo Williams while Rookie of the Year favorite Blake Griffin had 23 and nine rebounds.\u00a0 Like the Rockets, LA also jumped out to an early lead on the road only to fade away in the end.\u00a0 The Mavs trailed 35-19 after one and then proceeded to outscore Los Angeles by nine points in each of the last three quarters.<\/p>\n

The OVER cashed in the second straight game for the Clips following three straight UNDERs.\u00a0 They have given up an average of nearly 110 points in their last two games after holding their previous two opponents to an average of 86.5 points in a pair of wins.<\/p>\n

Houston has also struggled defensively for the most part over the last nine games.\u00a0 The Rockets have allowed eight of their past nine opponents to score more than 100 points, the exception being a 112-87 road win at New Jersey on March 29.\u00a0 Still, the UNDER is 4-2 in their last six games overall, a trend that could continue against LA.<\/p>\n

The teams have split the last four meetings both straight-up and against the spread with the UNDER cashing each time.\u00a0 Houston had won the previous three games between the teams before that with the OVER going 2-1.\u00a0 The Clippers are 4-10 ATS in the last 14 meetings and 4-9 ATS in their past 13 overall.<\/p>\n

Now that you have read this NBA betting preview featuring the Rockets & Clippers, check out the NBA odds on this and all the games to compare the best lines at multiple sportsbooks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Clippers at Houston Rockets, Toyota Center, Houston, TX Saturday, April 9, 2011, 8:30 pm Eastern, TV:\u00a0 FSPT, KTXH Opening Line: Rockets -7 Current Line: Rockets -8 Opening Total: 213 Current Total: 215.5 Money Line: Rockets -350 \/ Clippers +290 The Los Angeles Clippers (31-49) and Houston Rockets (41-38) will both try to win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":9424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[4438,831,1371,4439,1985,4440,4833],"class_list":["post-14773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-free-pro-basketball-pick","tag-houston-rockets","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-nba-basketball-odds","tag-nba-picks","tag-pro-basketball-betting","tag-rockets-clippers-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14773","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\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14773"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14775,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14773\/revisions\/14775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}