What in the world is happening to Houston? The Rockets crashed to their fourth loss this season with a heart-breaking eight-point defeat to the formerly winless Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday. Kevin McHale’s men will look to get their season back on track when they take on the Denver Nuggets in a mouth-watering clash at Pepsi Center tonight.
Read on below for an in-depth breakdown of this explosive matchup and while you’re at it, you can check out our previews of the game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks.
[sc:NBAArticles ]Houston Rockets vs. Denver Nuggets Preview
Where: Pepsi Center, Denver
When: Friday, November 13, 9:00 PM ET
Line: Houston Rockets at Denver Nuggets – view all NBA lines
Betting on the Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets had their four-game winning run snapped on Wednesday with a gut-wrenching 106-98 defeat to the Brooklyn Nets. The Rockets had no answer for Bojan Bogdanovic who scored a season-high 22 points. The Rockets have struggled mightily on the defensive end this season, allowing a whopping 108.3 points per game, fourth-highest in the NBA.
[sc:NBA240banner ]It’s not just their defense, though, that has been the problem for them this season. Houston’s high-powered offense has been sputtering as well to start the year. Their 98-point performance against the Nets was the fourth time this season that they failed to reach 100 points in a game. The Rockets lost in all four of those games.
The onus then is on James Harden to kick-start the Houston offense. He scored just 23 points on Wednesday after finishing with 37 or more in three of his previous four games. Harden was ice-cold from the three-point area, going just 3-of-10 from beyond the arc. The entire Rockets team struggled with their perimeter shooting, knocking down just eight of their 34 three-point attempts against Brooklyn. Houston is shooting just 28.4 percent from deep this season.
They will look to get their outside shots going when they face the Nuggets later tonight. Denver has allowed its last six opponents to shoot 41.1 percent from deep with 11.2 made threes per game. The Rockets, however, struggled against that same three-point defense, going just 8-of-35 from deep in a 105-85 loss to Denver on October 28.
The Rockets have won six of their last eight games against the Nuggets.
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Betting on the Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets extended their winning streak to two games with a nerve-wracking 103-102 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night. Kenneth Faried was the star of the show for the Nuggets, scoring 19 points including the game-winning basket with five seconds remaining. He also collected nine rebounds, two steals and three blocks in a sterling all-around performance.
The Nuggets will look to sustain the momentum of that huge win when they take on the reeling Rockets tonight. Denver stunned Houston, 105-85, in their first meeting this season. Danilo Gallinari led the way for the Nuggets in that game, scoring 23 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field. He has been solid for the Nuggets this season, averaging 17.9 points and 5.1 rebounds this campaign.
Denver’s defense also took center stage in that contest, holding Houston to just 34.5 percent shooting from the field. They were able to shut down James Harden and Ty Lawson who nailed just nine of their 31 field goal attempts. Pulling off that same defensive feat will be harder though, for the Nuggets especially now that Harden is starting to heat up. He is averaging 35.4 points in his last five games.
The Nuggets are 2-2 SU and 1-3 ATS at home this season.
Writer’s Prediction
Houston wins, 107-97.
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