The Rockets start a four-game road trip when they visit Minnesota on Saturday night. Houston enters losers of five straight games, including two-in-a-row to the Clippers, the last one a 109-101 defeat at home, a loss against a +6 spread. The TWolves will be on the second half of back-to-back games at home, the first versus undefeated Milwaukee on Friday night. Tipoff from the Target Center is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. EST in the first matchup between these Western Conference opponents this season.

The struggle is real for the Rockets, that is unless you’ve bet them ATS where they are a surprising 5-4 on the season despite living in a couple of big losing streaks. Three of those hits have come on the road including at Atlanta and Utah, two very strong teams in their home buildings. The team averages 107 points per game, second worst in the NBA only to the LA Clippers, the team who just beat them twice
Rookie center Alperen Sengun has been consistently strong, averaging a double-double through seven games played. The 20-year-old has 16.7 points per game and 10.3 rebounds. He has led the team in rebounds on six occasions and the season-high 26 points he scored versus the Clippers on Wednesday were also a team-high on the night.

Jabari Smith Jr. ruled out with an illness. Jae’Sean Tate, who last played on October 30^th, will likely miss another game due to an ongoing ankle injury. Combined the two are averaging 19.1 points per game and 10.4 rebounds.

The Timberwolves entered their weekend on a two-game losing streak tasked with facing down one of the NBA’s best teams and one of its worst. They are 3-5 ATS this season with their hits coming against Oklahoma City, San Antonio and the Lakers, all as favorites. They were +3.5 underdogs in their last game, a 116-107 loss to Phoenix.

Anthony Edwards has exploded since scoring just 9 versus San Antonio on October 24^th. In the four games he has played since the third-year guard has averaged 26.3 points per game. He also collected 8 steals in that stretch and his 23.1 points per game on the season are a team best.

Rudy Gobert and Edwards were both questionable with illness heading into Friday’s game. If they are unable to contribute this weekend it will obviously leave the Timberwolves a whole lot smaller and vulnerable on the glass. Combined the duo has averaged 36.4 points and 20.1 rebounds per game.

The Rockets have yet to be favored this season, understandable for the team with the second highest strength of schedule according to DunksandThrees.com. The TWolves sit 23rd in that department, picking up wins versus lower tier teams like the Lakers and Oklahoma City, twice. Houston’s win margin against the spread is a slim +3.3 per game with three of those wins coming by just half a point. If this thing comes in around -8 in favor of Minnesota that I again like Houston to cover, in what will most likely be another losing effort. They have a knack for at the very least keeping it close until it no longer needs to be, and they’ve played some strong competition so far. They are battle tested to be able to survive on the road, which is what this one will be…take Houston with the points if in the ballpark of 8 or higher.

Though both of these teams are some of the faster paced teams in the league – Houston 4th, Minnesota 10th – they aren’t catching rims on fire with consistent buckets. As noted above the Rockets hold the second lowest scoring margin in the league with 107 and the Timberwolves average 114.1. Minnesota has seen their last three games go under; Houston has seen two-in-a-row hit under which is what we are going with in this one.