Tip-off: 0035, 07/11/2019
Stadium: Toyota Center
TV: Sky Sports
An out-of-sorts Golden State Warriors travel to the Toyota Center against an underachieving Houston Rockets side in an intriguing clash on Thursday evening.
Both sides were expected to be among the front-runners in the hunt for the NBA crown, but they have already had bumps in their respective roads during the early stages of the campaign.
Houston have had strong home form in recent years though, and we expect them to bounce back and come out on top against Steve Kerr’s injury-ravaged team, winning the race to be the first team to score 20 points in the match at a price of 9/20 for the first of our opening Rockets vs Warriors prediction.
A Look At Houston Rockets’ Betting Odds
The Rockets currently sit just outside the play-off places in the Western Conference after winning four of their opening seven matches.
Houston began their campaign with a defeat to Milwaukee Bucks before going on a three-match winning streak, only to fall to back-to-back losses at the Brooklyn Nets and Miami Heat.
There is no disgrace in those defeats, with all three in the top four of the Eastern Conference, but if Mike D’Antoni’s side are to be in contention when the play-offs come around they need to win these sort of contests.
James Harden continues to lead the Rockets with huge points tallies with a league-leading average of 36.6 per game, while Russell Westbrook is fourth on the assists list as scoring continues to be their strength on court.
They will need to put a run of results together to surge up the Western Conference in an NBA season where the title is there for the taking, beginning with a victory over their San Francisco-based visitors.
We believe Harden will be at the forefront of their fifth win of the season and another impending big score from the shooting guard should help for our second selection from the Rockets vs Warriors odds, which is over 236.5 total match points priced at 23/20.
A Look At Golden State Warriors’ Betting Odds
The Warriors are in an unfamiliar place at the moment, sitting bottom of the Pacific division and a lowly 12th in the Western Conference after winning three of the last five NBA titles.
Golden State lost All-Star Kevin Durant to the Brooklyn Nets during free agency but have also been decimated by injuries since the start of the campaign, with Klay Thompson unlikely to feature until the 2020-21 campaign after suffering a torn ACL in his left knee in Game Six of last season’s NBA Finals.
With Draymond Green, new recruit D’Angelo Russell and main man Steph Curry at the helm, the Warriors were expected to be competitive, but all three will miss the trip to Houston.
Green sustained a torn ligament in his finger during the defeat against the Charlotte Hornets last Sunday, while Russell missed the win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday with an ankle problem and will remain unavailable for the near future.
Curry is sidelined with a broken left hand while Jacob Evans III (left adductor) and Kevon Looney, who has a quadricep neuropathy condition, have added to the Warriors’ woes which has seen them slip to a 2-5 record.
Despite this, Golden State have not seen their scoring drop dramatically and average 111.7 points per game.
They have only failed to pass 100 match points on two occasions and we fancy them to score over 108.5 points at 91/100 for the last of our Rockets vs Warriors betting tips.
Additional stats
Last result:
Grizzlies 100-107 ROCKETS
WARRIORS 127-118 Trail Blazers
Head-to-head: Rockets 104-106 Warriors, Warriors 112-118 Rockets, Warriors 134-135 (OT) Rockets, Rockets 107-86 Warriors
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