Houston Rockets vs Oklahoma City Thunder NBA Picks, Odds, Predictions 12/23/20

The Oklahoma City Thunder take on the new-look Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center on Wednesday night.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have gone into full rebuild mode as they traded away Danilo Gallinari, Dennis Schroder, Chris Paul and Steven Adams, which really gives Shai Gilgeous-Alexander plenty of room to develop. Al Horford could be a good fit after he struggled for consistent minutes on a stacked 76ers roster while coach Billy Donovan was replaced by Mark Daigneault. The Thunder now have a stockpile of first and second round picks, so their future looks bright.

Meanwhile, the Houston Rockets are still having to deal with the issue of what to do with James Harden as his future with the team has yet to be decided. The Rockets changed coaches and traded away Russell Westbrook for John Wall while acquiring DeMarcus Cousins and Christian Wood, so there’s still something to work with if Harden is shipped off. The Rockets were ranked sixth in offense and 15th in defense.

Looking at the betting trends, the Thunder are 1-6 ATS in their last seven road games, 2-5 ATS in their last seven games playing on three or more days rest and 4-1 ATS in their last five games overall. The Rockets are 6-2 ATS in their last eight games playing on three or more days rest, 2-7 ATS in their last nine Wednesday games and 0-4 ATS in their last four games overall.

Head to head, the under is 13-6 in the last 19 meetings overall and the Thunder are 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings overall.

The Thunder are coming into this season with player development being their top priority, while the Rockets are stuck in limbo as they continue to ask for a major haul for Harden. The Thunder are a chance to pull off the upset, but they are just dealing with too many changes so it’s hard to back them against a Rockets team who might just surprise some teams this season. Give me the Rockets to silence the noise temporarily with a win here against the rebuilding Thunder.