This is a 10* BLOCKBUSTER on the Houston Rockets.

I think that the visitors will keep this one competitive enough to sneak in through the back door down the stretch. The only thing that people are talking about from the Clippers/Rockets series is the epic collapse from LA, but I think we need to give credit where credit is due, mainly to Kevin McHale and the coaching staff of Houston, which made huge adjustments defensively to come back from the 3-1 series deficit. Now the Rockets come into this series with a ton of confidence and momentum; also note that they play with the revenge factor today after losing all four regular season contests (also note that Dwight Howard sat out two of those meetings and is once again playing at 100% now). These teams are very similar in that they like to play tough defense and then get out on the break and spread out the opposing team with a lot of three-balls; look for each side to be putting an added emphasis on perimeter defense today, making this area a "wash." From a trend based stand point though, this selection is about as strong as you could possibly ask for as Houston is 20-15 ATS in revenging a loss vs. an opponent this season, while Golden State is interestingly just 10-12 ATS vs. poor defensive teams which allow 99-plus points per contest. While I won't be so bold as to predict an outright victory, I do think that the ROCKETS have all of the tools in place to take this one down to the wire.

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