Houston Rockets open up their NBA season at home as they host the new look New Orleans Pelicans. Rockets were 1 game short last year of the NBA Finals and will hope that they can take the final step this year meanwhile New Orleans will look to repeat the success as last year when they reached the 2nd round. A lot of superstars in action here including Harden Paul and Davis and this for sure looks like it will be a very entertaining game.
Houston Rockets
Houston Rockets will be without a few bench players for this match as Nene, Chriss, Knight and Qi are all unavailable. Otherwise everyone else are healthy and will play including of course the main stars CP3 and Harden. We can expect Carmelo Anthony to come off the bench for Houston as he’s done so during the pre-season and it will be interesting to see how he does as he looks to revive his career after a horrible year. Houston Rockets love to play run and gun basketball shooting a ton of 3s and coming into this season they are one of the biggest threats to Golden State at a title given how explosive this team can be.
Predicted Starting Line-up – C.Paul, J.Harden, J.Ennis, PJ Tucker, C.Capela
Injuries – Nene, B.Knight, M.Chriss, Z.Qi – All out
New Orleans Pelicans
Pelicans don’t have any serious injuries to report as they have pretty much a healthy squad. Newly acquired Wesley Johnson is questionable to play while Jahlil Okafor is also questionable. Otherwise, everyone else are available for Alvin Gentry. With DeMarcus Cousins gone, the Pelicans will hope that the newly added Julius Randle can fill that role meanwhile with Rondo gone, the pressure will be on Elfrid Payton to deliver. Despite all that, everyone knows that Anthony Davis is the star of this team and the Pelicans will be highly reliant on him and of course Jrue Holiday. Pels had a poor pre-season so a win here would be a great way to begin the season against a top 3 team in the NBA on the road.
Predicted Starting Line-up – E.Payton, J.Holiday, E.Moore, J.Randle, A.Davis
Injuries – J.Okafor – Questionable
Key Facts
Rockets have beaten the Pelicans in 7 consecutive home games.
Rockets won the season series 3-1 last season with a +- of +8.5
There was 223.5 ppg scored on average last season in the 4 meetings between these teams.
Houston were 34-7 at home and put up 114 ppg on average last season. They put up 122 ppg at home against NO.
In the pre-season, Houston had the 2nd best OFF RTG and averaged 117 ppg after having the best OFF RTG last season.
Despite their high scoring numbers, Houston were only 14th in pace last season and 25th in pace in preseason this year.
New Orleans were just as good on the road last season (24-17) as they were at home (24-17)
Pelicans went 0-5 in the preseason and gave up 124.8 ppg on average. Sloppy
Pelicans had the best pace last season (101.60) and carried that on in the preseason this year with a ridiculous 114.20. Fast paced team
Pelicans had the 3rd worst DEF RTG in pre-season At 109.3
Betting Tips and Predictions
This game definitely has all the credentials to be a high scoring show. He have a top 2 efficient squad playing the fast pace offence and that should give us an over. Despite the totals reaching 230, this game should be an over and not only that, but a separate Rockets over should come trough too considering how badly Pelicans look on defense. We can see Houston scoring 130+ with all that scoring power they have in Harden CP3 Gordon Capela Melo etc. Pelicans themselves know how to score they have Anthony Davis, Holiday, Randle, Mirotic, Payton so the olaymaking and scoring is there and knowing how fast they play they could probably themselves get 110+ points. We do expect Houston to blow this game open at any point and to cover the handicap too simply because they’re extremely explosive. Houston to win this match around 132-113 is our prediction.
Match Odds (TonyBet)
Houston Rockets Win 1.32 (Regular Time – 1.36)
New Orleans Pelicans Win – 3.73 (Regular a Time – 4.03)
Overtime – 14.00
Match Start – 18th October 2018 – 1am UK Time
