Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Vegas Play of the Day: Houston Rockets at Detroit Pistons

Super Bowl 49

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With all the Super Bowl anticipation, I’ve neglected the NBA this week.

Searching the betting board for the Play of the Day, which uses odds from the South Point and $10,000 starting bankrolls, felt like a taxing process.

Detroit Pistons plus-5 vs. Houston Rockets: $220 to win $200

With Dwight Howard out nursing a sprained ankle, the Rockets are increasingly relying on more minutes from Josh Smith. The Pistons know how that ends.

Houston is one of the best teams in the league, but it’s not particularly deep. It’s not the type of team that can lose its second-best player for an extended period of time and suffer no consequences.

The Rockets have won all three games without Howard in the current stretch, but they were all close and collectively not against the most awe-inspiring slate — at Boston, hosting Dallas and at the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s difficult to trust the Rockets to lay points on the road sans Howard against a tough team.

Yes, Detroit still registers as a tough team. The Pistons are 12-7 straight up, 13-6 against the spread since dumping Smith two days before Christmas.

They’ve fallen back to Earth over the past week, dropping four straight both straight up and against the spread, but all except Wednesday’s loss at Philadelphia were understandable. They dropped tight decisions to the Cavaliers and Raptors to go with a 15-point defeat against the Bucks.

They were bound to need a few games to adjust to playing without leading scorer Brandon Jennings, who’s out for the year with a torn Achilles. The Pistons will get it together, and tonight is an opportunity to buy them low.

Standings: Bern (65-54-1, $12,366), Keefer (63-63-2, $10,227), Brewer (57-64-3, $5,585)

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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