The Houston Rockets have officially gotten over the hump. They gave everything they had in Game 3 to beat the Golden State Warriors and get on the board in this series, but they've got a long way to go in order to really make the defending champs sweat.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
The oddsmakers are likely going to assume that Stephen Curry will play in this game. We'll talk more about Curry in a moment, but if the assumption is there that he'll play, you've got to figure that Golden State is going to be favored by around a touchdown in this game since it was -5.5 in Game 3 before it was announced that Curry wouldn't play.
SERIES RECAP
This series has ebbed and flowed for Houston with the play of Dwight Howard. When he's gotten established in the paint offensively, his entire game seems to pick up, not just on the offensive side of the court, but on defense as well. The Rockets have had their best runs throughout this series when Howard has been on his game.
Golden State hasn't always shot the three well, especially without Curry on the court. The Dubs only went 6-of-25 from beyond the arc in Game 3, and they've now proven that they're going to have to hit some threes if they want to effectively put the Rockets away.
INJURIES
Both of the point guards in this game are going to be watched closely on the injury front. Patrick Beverley had to come out of a long stretch of Game 3 thanks to a leg injury, but he did end up playing over 33 minutes.
The real concern is Curry, though. Klay Thompson didn't make a single three-pointer against the Rockets in Game 3, and with Curry out of the fold, there was just no answer whatsoever offensively.
The Warriors shot just 43.0 percent from the field, and it was the first time in this series they were held under 100 points.
LIVE BETTING
What's worth remembering is that the Rockets won seemingly all of the 50/50 balls, went +8 on the offensive glass, had 10 more points in the paint and still only won by a point against Golden State.
Imagine how bad this might get if all of that ends up going wrong in Game 4?
QUICK PICK
It was all fine and dandy for the Warriors to hold Curry out of Game 3 thanks to that ankle injury, but they won't want to mess around here and give Houston any semblance of hope like the Clippers did last year when those two teams met. James Harden is a dangerous man on the floor, and he can take games over all by himself.
Still, once Curry gets back out there, we just don't see Houston having a reasonable shot. Blowouts have been the theme of the opening round of the NBA playoffs, and we have a hunch we're going to see another one here in Game 4.
NBA Odds: Warriors 117, Rockets 100
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