Houston Rockets vs Cleveland Cavaliers December 15 Bet Preview

The Houston Rockets will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday evening inside of the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse as the two non-conference opponents square off. The Rockets are 13th in the Western Conference with a 9-18 record and are coming off a 132-126 road win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. The Cavaliers are fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 17-12 record and are riding a four-game winning streak after a home win on Monday over the Miami Heat 105-94. 

Center of the Offense

Christian Wood has been leading the Houston Rockets this season and is officially listed as questionable for this game with a knee injury. He is averaging 16.5 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, one block, and 0.6 steals while playing 31.8 minutes on the court. His shooting numbers are a little bit down when compared to his career numbers as he shot 45.8 percent from the field, 34.4 percent from three, and 57.9 percent from the free-throw line. He did not make a big impact in his last game against the Atlanta Hawks as Christian Wood finished with 12 points, five rebounds, three assists, and a steal in 25 minutes. 

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Filling Sexton’s Shoes

Point guard Darius Garland has been playing well this season for the Cleveland Cavaliers despite being bolstered into the starting role abruptly as he is playing 34.6 minutes and averaging 18.9 points, three rebounds, 7.5 assists, and 1.3 steals per game. He is shooting above his career numbers in all three facets as he is shooting 46.2 percent from the floor, 38.6 percent from beyond the arc, and 89.2 percent from the charity stripe. In his last game against the Miami Heat, Darius Garland finished with 16 points, four rebounds, five assists, and three steals in 36 minutes on the court. 

Who Will Cover?

As of this writing, the Cleveland Cavaliers are being favored by 8.5 points in this game and should be able to cover once again. Houston is 15-11-1 against the spread this year while Cleveland is a remarkable 22-7 against the spread. Despite that, the Houston Rockets are currently 2-12 when playing outside of the Toyota Center this season and are not built to be a competitive team during the 2021-2022 regular season and instead use this season as a building block for the future while Cleveland is trying to attack this window in a weaker Eastern Conference.

The Rockets are dealing with a lot of injuries as besides Cristian Wood being ruled as questionable, shooting guard Eric Gordon (groin), small forward Daniel House Jr (ankle), shooting guard Kevin Porter Jr (thigh), power forward Usman Garuba (thigh), shooting guard Jalen Green (hamstring), and point guard John Wall (holdout) all are not going to play in this game. The Rockets are 1-4 against the spread in their last five games against the Cavs and I fully expect Cleveland to win by double digits at home so go with the Cleveland Cavaliers to cover the spread in this game against inferior competition.