The Houston Rockets will make the trip north of the border for a date with the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night. The Rockets have dropped back-to-back games following a five-game winning streak, while the Raptors lost their last game in Miami after winning three in a row.[ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Houston Rockets (49-24) at Toronto\u00a0Raptors (42-32)<\/strong> ATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CappersPicks Insider Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Every game is of critical importance for both sides the rest of the way as they jockey for playoff positioning. The Raptors look to hold off the hard-charging Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls for the third spot in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n The Rockets didn\u2019t do the Raptors any favors on Tuesday, dropping their contest to the Nets on Tuesday night on the front end of their back-to-back. That loss certainly can\u2019t be pinned on shooting guard James Harden, who scored a team-high 26 points despite attempting just 10 shots from the field. He knocked down all 16 of his attempts from the charity stripe, and disked out seven assists.<\/p>\n Center Omer Asik also filled in nicely for Dwight Howard, pulling down a career-high 23 rebounds, and adding 12 points for the game\u2019s only double-double. Asik now has 34 rebounds over his last two games. As for the Raptors, they are dealing with a major injury woe of their own, as point guard Kyle Lowry suffered a knee injury in the team\u2019s last game that could keep him out of this contest. X-rays on Lowry\u2019s knee came back negative following the Miami game, but the knee did reportedly swell up after the game.<\/p>\n The injury comes at a very inopportune time for the Raptors, as Lowry has been on a tear since the All-Star break, averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 assists, and 5.5 rebounds in 22 games. Giving Lowry some rest in advance of the playoffs could be the wise move.<\/p>\n Both teams are dealing with some health woes at the moment, but the injuries the Raptors are dealing with leave the team at a greater disadvantage in this contest. Lowry has been the team\u2019s driving force this season, and they\u2019ll have a hard time adapting without him. The Rockets can score points in bunches, and while they have had trouble in Toronto in recent years, they bring a significant talent edge into this contest.<\/p>\n The Rockets are 11-6 in the second games of back-to-backs this season.<\/p>\n The play: Houston -1<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rockets vs Raptors Online Betting Odds The Houston Rockets will make the trip north of the border for a date with the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night. The Rockets have dropped back-to-back games following a five-game winning streak, while the Raptors lost their last game in Miami after winning three in a row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":976,"featured_media":73538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[5922,578,61717,61718,66499,61719,5068],"class_list":["post-74942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-free-nba-pick","tag-houston-rockets","tag-houston-rockets-vs-toronto-raptors","tag-houston-vs-toronto","tag-nba","tag-rockets-vs-raptors","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74942"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74957,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74942\/revisions\/74957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDate: Wednesday, April 2, 2014<\/strong>
\nTime: 7:00 PM ET<\/strong>
\nVenue: Air Canada Centre<\/strong>
\nCity: Toronto, Ontario, Canada<\/strong>
\nO\/U Odds: 204.5<\/strong>
\nSpread: Houston -1<\/strong>
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\nHoward missed the contest due to a separate injuries to his back and left ankle, and while he isn\u2019t expected to play on Wednesday, he did travel with the team, which leaves the door open for a return. That injury is in addition to the one suffered by Patrick Beverley, whose injured right knee could cost him the rest of his season.<\/p>\n