NBA weekly betting trends: No problems yet in Houston
By Jeff Glauser
The hottest team by far in the NBA entering this week is the Houston Rockets. But can you bet on them staying that way?
The Rockets, who had won 10 straight before being taken off their perch by the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday, have also been the best bet in the league this season. Per SportsBookReview.com, they boast 19 covers against the spread, including 7-3 ATS during the winning streak.
However, is a course correction coming?
Many people around the NBA thought the Rockets made a mistake when they hired coach Mike
D’Antoni this past offseason. He clearly possesses a strong offensive-minded pedigree, leading the Phoenix Suns to two Western Conference Finals trips, but was just 455-426 (.516) overall in his stints with the Suns, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers. His teams missed the playoff altogether six times and three others were eliminated in the first round.
The Rockets were just 41-41 last year under Kevin McHale and interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff largely because their defense wasn’t very good, and D’Antoni wasn’t going to fix that.
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Presently, D’Antoni is one of the NBA Coach of the Year favorites. Houston’s offense has been tremendous as it is second in the NBA in scoring at 117.9 per game. The Rockets pretty much live and die by the three-pointer. In last Friday’s 122-100 win over the New Orleans Pelicans, Houston set records for triples attempted in a half (31), in a game (61) and made (24). The team has hit at least 10 threes in an NBA-record 27 consecutive games and seem poised to break the Golden State Warriors record for most in a season, set last year at 1,077.
James Harden is playing at an MVP level, averaging 27.7 points, 11.8 assists and 8.0 rebounds as D’Antoni made him the team’s full-time point guard. But is Houston a legitimate threat to win the Western Conference? In their defense (or, more accurately, with their defense), no.
But as long as the irreplaceable Harden remains healthy, there’s no reason this can’t be a 50-win team and no reason they shouldn’t cover more often than not. Just be aware that some nights those threes aren’t going to fall, so there will be an occasional bad loss mixed in.