The San Antonio Spurs invade the Toyota Center to do battle with the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night.
The San Antonio Spurs have been in a major slump as they’ve lost 12 of their past 15 games overall and they will be hoping to snap a two-game skid after coming up short against the 76ers in a 115-109 home loss on Sunday. Jakob Poeltl led the team with 25 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks, Dejounte Murray tallied 19 points with nine rebounds and 12 assists while Keldon Johnson chipped in with 17 points on five of seven shooting. As a team, the Spurs shot 47 percent from the field and 10 of 30 from the 3-point line but they were always fighting an uphill battle after a slow start and there was just no stopping the 76ers’ Joel Embiid who torched them for 38 points on 16 of 32 shooting. Dejounte Murray has been red-hot for the Spurs lately, but he had a forgettable night as he scored just 10 points on four of 15 shooting.
Meanwhile, the Houston Rockets have been in a slump of their own as they’ve lost 13 of their past 17 games overall and they will be hoping for a better showing after falling painfully short to the Warriors in a 105-103 road loss on Friday. Christian Wood led the team with 19 points, 15 rebounds and four assists, Kevin Porter Jr. added 17 points with eight assists and four steals while Kenyon Martin Jr. chipped in with 14 points on six of nine shooting off the bench. As a team, the Rockets shot just 42 percent from the field and 10 of 35 from the 3-point line as they held the Warriors to just 19 points in the second quarter to build an early 15-point lead, before getting run down in the final seconds as the Warriors’ Stephen Curry drained the game-winner with just 1.6 seconds left on the clock.
Looking at the betting trends, the Spurs are 5-2 ATS in their last seven games against a team with a losing record, 2-5 ATS in their last seven road games and 2-6 ATS in their last eight games overall. The Rockets are 14-38 ATS in their last 52 home games, 21-43 ATS in their last 64 games against a team with a losing record and 4-1 ATS in their last five games overall.
Head to head, the under is 5-1 in the last six meetings overall and the Spurs are 5-2-1 ATS in the last eight meetings overall.
The Spurs are hard to figure out as they’re almost at full strength and they’re getting big performances from their players, but it just hasn’t translated into wins for them lately. The Rockets have been just as bad lately, but they were more than competitive in their two-point loss to the Warriors on Friday, so a minor upset wouldn’t surprise me at all in this one. It’s hard to back either team with too much confidence these days, but the Rockets impressed me in their loss to the Warriors and I think they can get over the hump in this one behind another big game from Wood.