Dallas At Houston
When: 9:30 PM ET, Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Where: Toyota Center, Houston, Texas
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, TNT, TXA 21 (Dallas), ROOT (Houston)
PREDICTION: Mavericks 109, Rockets 107
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Oddsmakers currently have the Rockets listed as 5½-point favorites versus the Mavericks, while the game’s total is sitting at 215.

The Mavericks were a 118-108 loser in their most recent outing on the road against the Rockets. They failed to cover the +9.5-point spread as underdogs, while the total score (226) made winners of OVER bettors.

Howard spent the final few weeks of the regular season slowly working his way back from a knee injury and only managed 17 minutes in Game 1 while dealing with foul trouble. “It was a little frustrating, but my biggest thing was, when I’m out there on the floor, just play as hard as I can despite the fouls and not allow that to take me out of the game,” Howard told reporters. “I’m going to get called for some fouls sometimes. I just got to play through it, continue to block shots, continue to run the floor and continue to control the paint.” Howard made the most of his limited time with 11 points, five rebounds and five blocks.

Team record: 57-26 SU,49-34 ATS
Current Streak: won 4 straight games.
Houston is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games
Houston is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Houston’s last 7 games
Houston is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games at home

Dallas fell behind 32-19 after the first quarter and spent too much energy playing catchup. “We’ve got to come out and be the aggressor,” Mavericks center Tyson Chandler told reporters. “I mean, we’ve got to pick up fullcourt and deny the wings, making things more difficult for them. I think they were way too comfortable bringing the ball up the floor and way too comfortable getting into their offense.” Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting in Game 1 but also committed six turnovers.

Team record: 50-33 SU,35-45-3 ATS
Dallas is 6-15 ATS in its last 21 games
Dallas is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Dallas’s last 5 games
Dallas is 3-10 ATS in its last 13 games on the road

The post Dallas vs. Houston Preview appeared first on IdealCapper.

Not even any wild Russell Westbrook outfits.

New standouts might emerge during these playoffs, but there’s no arguing that there’s plenty of star power missing.

If jersey sales are a true measure of a player’s popularity, then four of the NBA’s top nine stars – the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, New York’s Carmelo Anthony and Miami’s Dwyane Wade – have already seen their seasons come to an end.

So has Westbrook, the league’s first scoring champion to miss the playoffs since Tracy McGrady in 2004. And that means his collection of ”what was he wearing” shirts won’t be on display in those postgame news conferences this year.

”I’m at home, watching other teams play,” Westbrook said when asked about the scoring title after he and Oklahoma City saw their season end Wednesday night. ”It doesn’t mean nothing.”

Sure, there are plenty of usual suspects ready to shine in this postseason.

Tim Duncan will try to win ring No. 6 for San Antonio, LeBron James is resuming his quest to bring a title to Cleveland, likely MVP Stephen Curry led Golden State to the league’s best record and James Harden might have Houston primed for its first Finals run in 20 years.

And new faces are ready to make a splash. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love make their playoff debuts when Cleveland opens against Boston. Anthony Davis gets his first taste of the postseason when New Orleans takes on the Warriors.

Games will sell out and ratings will surely be high, but something might just seem off.

”These (are) guys who’ve been in the playoffs year in and year out, who bring a lot of excitement to the game and to the postseason,” Anthony said. ”So when I look back and see all the guys that’s out, it’s like the game is missing something. But at the end of the day, guys got to get healthy, guys got to get right. You can’t push it.”

Bryant, Durant, Anthony and Chris Bosh were among those who saw their seasons end early because of injury or illness. Of those, only Bosh played in more than half of his team’s games. They’ve all been out for a while, and Bryant was spotted in Milan on Thursday while 16 teams at home started tuning up for what they hope are title runs.

Paul George made a gallant effort to help Indiana after he recovered from the horrific leg injury he endured last summer, but the Pacers were ousted on the season’s final night. Wade and Miami had a chance until the next-to-last night.

”It’s been my toughest year by far,” George wrote on Twitter, ”but looking forward to my greatest summer ahead!”

In all, nearly half of the league’s 32 highest-paid players won’t be in the playoffs.

Wade has had the shortest offseasons in each of the last four years, with Miami going to the Finals in each. He played in 86 games in those four years, which means he basically logged an extra full season – and then some – during those postseasons.

”I haven’t had that much time off in a long time,” Wade said. ”Playing into late June the last four years, it’s been a lot, mentally, especially physically. Then coming right back into this season and all the things we went through, from the summer to the season with all the injuries and everything, it was a lot.”

Would he have rather been in the playoffs? Absolutely.

But with that not an option, Wade can see a silver lining.

”It’ll be good for me to get away for a while,” Wade said, ”and come back better next year.”

—

AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney contributed to this report.

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Durant scored 24 points and drew a rare offensive charging foul, and the Oklahoma City Thunder routed Harden and the Houston Rockets 120-91 on Sunday night in Game 1 of their playoff series.

Durant, who’s known more for his three NBA scoring titles than for stepping in the way of oncoming opponents, got in Harden’s way on a transition drive in the third quarter in a standout defensive effort for the Thunder against the league’s second highest-scoring offense.

“It was all about giving your all every possession,” Durant said.

Hours before going head-to-head with Harden, Durant said that “we’re not looking at him as a friend right now.” But even right before tipoff, the situation didn’t seem natural.

“It felt a little awkward just looking across there during the national anthem and seeing him with another team, but we’ve got to get past that. We’re competing against his team, and he wants to win so bad,” Durant said. “We know him personally, so we know how hard he competes and he knows how hard we compete.”

After letting Houston wipe away an 11-point deficit in the first half, the Thunder regained control with a 14-1 surge just before halftime and kept pouring it on.

Just after a fan nailed a half-court shot to win $20,000 in the break after the third quarter, Durant drove for a two-handed slam while getting fouled and Oklahoma City was soon up by 30.

“We didn’t have a rhythm as a team. I felt like it was basically one on five every time,” Harden said.

Harden, playing against the team that traded him away just before the season started, had 20 points but the Rockets were held 15 points below their regular-season scoring average while shooting 36 percent. Houston, which set a franchise record for 3-pointers during the regular season, finished 8 for 36 (22 percent) from behind the arc.

“We were trying to be solid on the defensive end,” Durant said. “We knew they were a great scoring team. We just tried to pack the paint and get out to their shooters. We had to make the second and third efforts, and I think we did that.”

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.

“Believe it or not, I think this was good for us,” Harden said. “Losing like this was definitely good for us. Now we know how to play.”

“We really don’t have an excuse anymore,” said Jeremy Lin, one of three Houston starters making their first career playoff apperance. “We’ve gotten it out and played terrible all the way across the board — offensively, defensively. That one’s over with.”

The Thunder were already up by 23 when Larry Hill connected on the half-court shot and went bounding toward Oklahoma City’s huddle in celebration, getting congratulated by Thabo Sefolosha before the team’s bison mascot pulled him back away.

Durant’s dunk sparked a string of seven straight points for Oklahoma City, and Harden never even came off the bench in the fourth quarter. Coach Scott Brooks called timeout and pulled Durant a few moments later, and reserves finished out the game for the Thunder.

“We wanted to take care of our home court,” Durant said. “We didn’t do anything yet.”

Russell Westbrook ended up with 19 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Serge Ibaka chipped in 17 points and Kevin Martin, Harden’s replacement in the sixth man role, had nine of his 16 points in the fourth quarter with the game already in hand.

It was an impressive playoff opener for top-seeded Oklahoma City, which made it to the NBA Finals last season before losing to Miami in five games. The Thunder led by as much as 35 before Houston’s reserves cut into the lead in garbage time.

Harden didn’t get much help from the rest of his starting lineup, which features players with a total of three career playoff starts, all by center Omer Asik. None of the other starters scored in double figures and the unit went 17 for 50 from the field, with Harden making just six of his 19 attempts.

It was Houston’s first playoff game in four years.

“James, on this team, has to shoulder a ton of responsibilities for us and he’s been great all year long,” coach Kevin McHale said. “He’s had an all-pro type of year. … He’ll play better, just like everybody.

“We ask him to do an awful lot for us — handle the ball, score the ball, pass the ball, make plays. I think that he had it going there for a little bit, but it wasn’t James. It was us in general as a team. We never really caught a flow at all tonight.”

Oklahoma City scored the first six points of the game and opened a 13-2 lead as the Rockets failed to make a basket for the first 6 minutes of the game and started out just 1 for 13 from the field. Houston eventually settled in and charged back with a 13-2 push spanning the break between the first two quarters, with Chandler Parsons providing the final five points on a two-handed putback jam and a 3-pointer.

Patrick Beverley pulled the Rockets even at 38 with a transition 3-pointer from the right wing, but the Rockets couldn’t pull ahead before Oklahoma City’s next surge.

Sefolosha had a two-handed slam on a fast break and also assisted on Kendrick Perkins’ two-handed dunk during the burst, which extended Oklahoma City’s lead to 60-45 before Harden’s driving layup in the final second before halftime.

All but the first basket in the Thunder’s run came after Asik joined Parsons on the bench with three fouls apiece.

The Rockets never recovered.

Game Notes
The game ball got switched out in the second quarter after it went into the stands and a drink was spilled on it. … Harden scored a career-high 46 points in the Rockets’ only regular-season win against Oklahoma City, but said he didn’t gain any secrets from that performance to carry over into the playoffs. “I’m not going to lie. I was just making shots,” he said. … The Thunder improved to 18-5 in playoff games in Oklahoma City.

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