Posted at 10:00 AM EST. Odds subject to change.

Pinnacle N/A BET365 -7 -110 Sportsinteraction -7½ -105 888Sport -6½ -125

Houston -7½ over Utah

Best Odds: -105 at Sportsinteraction

9:40 PM EST. Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware that the Houston Rockets are soaring right now. Winners of their last 10 games, Ime Udoka's squad has found a new gear, maintaining the elite defense and growing every day into a more confident offensive team. Jalen Green has made the biggest leap. Demonstrating his ability to serve as a true #1 scorer, Green has averaged 28.5 ppg in March and he's shooting over 50% from the field. He's a cultivator for an offense that's better than pundits think, one that's ascended to the 2nd highest rating among all NBA teams in March. They've also averaged 124.2 ppg in their last 10 contests.

If Houston can maintain that level of offensive efficiency and get into the playoffs, they would be a very dangerous opponent for any program. That's because defensive discipline, the true foundation of the culture Ime Udoka wants to institute with his new team, has rarely wavered. Although their offense has been the most impressive part of their explosive recent form, Houston continues to uphold some of the best resistance in the association, rated 4th overall in March and 8th full season. Guys like Dillon Brooks and Freddie VanFleet and Amen Thomspon and others set a physical tone at the start of every affair, pestering and prodding their opponents into frustrating shots. Their energy on defense has mostly been exceptional all season, but lately the eye-test reveals a unit that's intent on exerting aggression, flying around the ball and pressing their enemy with a constancy reminiscent of the NBA in the mid-90s. For lovers of defense, it's wonderful to watch, and the Rockets pay off for the average viewer by lightning quick answers on the other end of the floor, too (they're top-5 in pace this month). It's this combination that's not only amounted to 10 straight wins but an impressive 15.1-point average margin of victory along the same 10-game stretch.

Plain and simple, no team wants to face the Rockets right now, especially a program as awful as the Utah Jazz. At one point Will Hardy's team was the apple of our eye, surging in late December through mid-January and showing some impressive growth offensively. That ship has long sailed, as the Jazz have sunk to just 18th in offensive efficiency since the All-Star break. Even worse, they're the NBA's worst defense during the same span, a mark that hasn't improved much at all (okay, they're 28th in defensive efficiency the last two weeks, pardon us). At any rate, we already know that one of their most important offensive cogs, Jordan Clarkson, will not play Friday. Their #1, Lauri Markkenan, is also questionable with a recurring shoulder injury. That will leave a tremendous onus on Collin Sexton and an under-experienced Houston roster to fend off the red-hot Rockets in a tough spot, something that we simply can't imagine at this point. Utah has lost 7 games in a row by an average margin of -15 ppg, the exact opposite of their opponent tonight. And just last week, Houston annihilated the Jazz at home, 147-119.

There's no qualified reason to dislike the Rockets tonight. Are they on the road "at elevation" in Utah? Sure. Should that mean we don't bet on their spread? Absolutely not. The overblown narrative of how physically imposing it can be to perform in Denver or Utah has meant little for teams at the Delta Center this season, a venue where the home-team is just 20-17. And of course most of those wins came way earlier in their schedule; they're just 3-11 in Utah since February 12th. We're riding the Rockets of Houston, whether it's sexy anymore or not (it is).

Farley

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