The 33-19 Rockets will host the 25-28 Clippers tonight.
The Rockets are currently –375 favorites on the Moneyline at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the point total set to 208.5. Below, I’ll break down tonight’s matchup and offer my prediction.
Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Clippers preview, prediction
These two teams just played last night, and we saw the effect that this lengthy Houston defense had on Clippers’ superstar Kawhi Leonard, who finished the game with 24 points on 36.8% shooting. Leonard was a team-worst -16 in the +/- department, but that’s to be expected when he played the most minutes in a losing effort; the Clippers lost every quarter except for the second, in which they outscored the Rockets by two points. We also got to see the debut of Bennedict Mathurin, who came over to LA in the Ivica Zubac trade. Mathurin was largely underwhelming in this one, as he only recorded nine points on 4/13 shooting. Even though he got three steals, Mathurin’s going to continue coming off the bench as the Clippers continue to muse over what they want to do with this roster for the rest of the season. Oh, and they don’t own their first round pick for this year’s draft. The Clippers shot 40.9% from the field in last night’s loss.
The Rockets continue to grind their way up the Western Conference leaderboard. Last night’s game featured an uncharacteristically inefficient game from Kevin Durant, who shot 8/22 but managed to free-throw and three-point his way to 26 on the night. The Rockets ran just an eight man rotation last night. Alperen Sengun also chipped in 22 points on 9/14 shooting along with five assists. The Rockets shot just 45.6% from the field as a unit, which figures to be decent overall. Houston has the fifth best-rated defense this season and the sixth best offense.
Rockets vs. Clippers pick, best bet
Best bet: HOU Rockets -4.5 Alternate Spread (-232)
Due to last night’s results in addition to the Clippers’ current lack of options on both ends of the floor, I’m backing the Rockets to cover this alternate spread tonight. I’m not expecting much out of the Clippers tonight on the second half of a back to back, especially if Kawhi Leonard is potentially at risk of missing this game.
