Houston Rockets (17-50) vs. New Orleans Pelicans (27-40)
March 13, 2022 7:00 pm EDT
The Line: New Orleans Pelicans -5.5; Over/Under: +228
(Get latest betting odds)
The Houston Rockets and the New Orleans Pelicans collide at the Smoothie King Center on Sunday night.
The Houston Rockets have come to life with a couple of wins in their last four games, but they will be hoping to bounce back here after getting routed by the Mavericks in a 113-100 home loss on Friday. Kevin Porter Jr. led the team with 17 points and four assists, Joshua Christopher added 17 points off the bench while Bruno Fernando chipped in with 16 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks. As a team, the Rockets shot 47 percent from the field and just six of 30 from the 3-point line as they struggled to find their offense and found themselves in a 23-point deficit going into halftime before they could even find their footing. Alperen Sengun scored just six points on three of nine shooting, Eric Gordon scored just four points while Dennis Schroder scored just three points on one of six shooting.
Meanwhile, the New Orleans Pelicans have been in rough shape as they’ve lost eight of their last 13 games overall and they will be hoping to arrest a four-game slide after getting blown out by the Hornets in a 142-120 loss on Friday. Trey Murphy drained seven 3-pointers to lead the team with 32 points off the bench, Devonte’ Graham added 19 points with seven assists while Naji Marshall chipped in with 14 points and seven assists. As a team, the Pelicans shot 50 percent from the field and 15 of 39 from the 3-point line, but their problems were all on the defensive end as they did a nice job of hanging in the contest until the third quarter where they allowed 42 points to fall behind big.
Looking at the betting trends, the Rockets are 16-40 ATS in their last 56 games against a team with a losing record, 0-4 ATS in their last four road games and 1-26 ATS in their last 37 games overall. The Pelicans are 0-4 ATS in their last four games following a loss of more than 10 points and 0-4 ATS in their last four games overall.
Head to head, the under is 20-7-1 in the last 28 meetings in New Orleans, the Rockets are 1-4 ATS in the last five meetings in New Orleans and the Rockets are 1-4 ATS in the last five meetings overall.
The Rockets are almost back to full strength while the Pelicans are missing their two leading scorers in Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum who has been the main reason for their recent slide. You couldn’t back either side with much confidence these days, but the Rockets have shown signs of improvement over their last four games or so and I think they can hang with the depleted Pelicans in this spot.
