Western Conference Finals Kicks Off Tonight
The Houston Rockets battled their way from behind and clawed their way to a spot in the Western Conference Finals. Now they hit hit the road in Game 1 of the series against arguably the best team in the NBA, the Golden State Warriors.
The odds have opened high on this one, with sportsbooks knowing that people are going to flock to lay money on the red hot Warriors who have the rest advantage and homecourt advantage to kick off this series. Golden State are -10-point favorites against Houston.
The Warriors secured their spot earlier than the Rockets, taking six games to dispose of the Memphis Grizzlies. In the last game of that series the Warriors won, 108-95. They covered a -5-point spread as the favorites. OVER bettors made money on that game.
The Rockets took seven games to get past past the Los Angeles Clippers, fighting their way back from a 3-1 series deficit to earn their spot in the finals. The Rockets covered a +2-point spread as underdogs, winning 113-100. The UNDER nabbed a payout in that game.
The Rockets have won three-straight home games and will be looking forward to a return to Houston in this series. However, they are in California for the start of the series. The Warriors have won three straight games straight up and are 5-2 against the spread over their last seven games, but are 2-6 against the spread over their last eight homes games. The Rockets are 2-5 against the spread over their last seven games.
The game’s total is sitting at 219 points. Both the Rockets and Warriors sit among the top four three-point shooting teams in the NBA (interesting note the other two teams are the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks). We can expect a flurry of threes but that may not be enough to push the total OVER.
The total has gone UNDER in in six of the Warriors’ last seven games. The Rockets have hit the OVER in six of their last seven outings. The total during their season series went 2-2. When the total did go OVER it was way OVER (239 and 237), indicating the total may come down to which team can dictate their pace.
The game starts at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
