The last game of the regular season will feature the Philadelphia 76ers taking on the Houston Rockets. Philadelphia is just 3-3 in the bubble, and all three of their victories have come against teams that are currently six games below .500. Houston has fared much better as although the Rockets are 4-2, they knocked off the No. 1 seed in both conferences, defeating Milwaukee and the LA Lakers within four days. The Rockets will almost certainly be favored according to the NBA betting odds in this game that will be played on Friday, August 14, at 9 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN.
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Head-To-Head Results to Date
As members of different conferences, these teams only met once during the regular season before Friday night’s game. Houston scored 76 points in the second and third quarter of the Rockets’ 118-108 victory over Philadelphia back in early January. James Harden was unsurprisingly the game’s high scorer with 44 points on 13 of 24 shooting. Two of Houston’s starters (P.J. Tucker and Danuel House Jr.) combined to play 66 minutes and shot just four times, all threes.
Injury Report
James Harden might sit out this game in order to be fully ready for the playoffs. Harden sat out of Tuesday’s game against San Antonio, and Mike D’Antoni might put him on ice until the weekend. The same thing could happen to Russell Westbrook as he is listed as day-to-day despite playing on Tuesday.
The 76ers suffered the most devastating injury blow in the bubble when Ben Simmons went down with a torn ACL. Simmons was having a superb season, making 58 percent of his baskets while threatening a triple-double on many nights. To make matters worse, Joel Embiid injured his ankle and will likely sit out until the postseason as a precaution, although he might be gone for longer than that. Al Horford and Tobias Harris sat out of Tuesday night’s loss to Phoenix as Brett Brown didn’t want to risk two of his other starters, and they could miss this game too as the Sixers are likely locked into the No. 6 seed.
Game Preview
Both teams had already qualified for the playoffs before they played their first game in Orlando, so the only issue at stake was seeding. That doesn’t matter to Philly anymore as the Sixers are essentially penciled into the No. 6 seed. Houston has the potential to fall between the No. 3 and No. 6 seed as of Wednesday morning, so we might see a little gamesmanship out of the Rockets as they have the potential to effectively select their first-round opponent.
This will be the first time that Robert Covington has faced his former team in a Houston uniform. Covington joined the Rockets back in early February as part of a four-team trade, and he will want to make up for the poor game he had against the 76ers when he was with Minnesota back in October.
X-Factor
The big question in this game is the injury report. Multiple stars might sit for both teams, effectively making this a glorified scrimmage. When Philadelphia played Phoenix on Tuesday, the Sixers gave big minutes to veritable unknowns like Kyle O’Quinn, Alec Burks, and Raul Neto so you will want to keep your eye on Twitter before betting on this game. Both these teams have depth issues, so you don’t want either side to have to rely on its usual bench players too much.
Prediction
While most might think the under is the right play with so many unknowns, the over is the best option. It’s possible that neither team takes this game too seriously, so there is the potential for fireworks.
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