New Orleans has taken a while to rediscover what made them such a potent threat at the beginning of the season, but they seemed to have figured it out now.  Defense!  For all the problems that a team can have scoring, it sure gets a lot easier to win when you hold your last two opponents to under 40% shooting from the field.  The result for New Orleans has been a two game win streak that they will look to extend tonight at the Toyota Center against the Houston Rockets.  Houston has won just 3 of their last 10 games, but they should be getting their leading scorer Kevin Martin back from injury tonight, which will greatly increase their chances of winning, given the fact that he accounts for nearly 20% of their offensive output.

Tonight’s game will feature two distinctly different styles of play.  New Orleans is a slow half court grind team, that focuses on execution and defense.  Houston is a run and gun team.  The total should be an interesting one as NBA oddsmakers have set it under 200 at an opening line of 196.

Some betting trends:

The total has gone UNDER in 17 of New Orleans’ last 23 games.  They are 5-2 SU in their last 7.  The total has gone UNDER in 12 of their last 15 on the road and they are 3-8 SU in their last 11 road games.  They are 4-1 SU in their last 5 games against Houston and the total has gone UNDER in 8 of the last 10 games against the Rockets.  The total has gone UNDER in 8 of their last 12 games when playing on the road against the Rockets.  New Orleans is 2-4 SU in their last 6 games against the Rockets.  New Orleans is 2-4 ATS in their last 6 against the Rockets.

Houston is 1-6 SU in their last 7 games.  They are 1-7-2 ATS in their last 10 games  and the total hasgone OVER in 4 of their last 6 games.  They are 9-4 SU in their last 13 games at home and 0-4-1 ATS in their last 5 games at home.  The total has gone OVER In 4 of their last 5 at home and they are 1-4 SU in their last 5 home games.  They are also 1-4 SU in their last 5 against the Hornets.  They are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 against the Hornets.

Brooks and Lowry are currently in a time share situation at the point and both are playing very effectively.  They will both have their problems covering Paul though, whose skill and determination make him a very tough cover at point guard.  Paul doesn’t have a size and strength advantage against them, nor does he have a quickness advantage; he’s just better.  Lowry is a better defender than Brooks so he may see more minutes tonight, but don’t be surprised to see them in the backcourt together.  At times they have formed a diminutive but effective duo in the backcourt.

Scola and West are both key scorers for their teams and both play similar games.  They rely on a lot of baseline jumpers and jumpshots in general to score, but Scola can bang inside a little better than West and is a better rebounder because of it.  West is not having the all star caliber season he did three years ago but he is still very effective and shoots a high percentage from the field (51.2%).  These two will probably more or less neutralize one another given their similar skill sets and similar statistics.

Houston is slightly favored by NBA oddsmakers for tonight’s contest, and mostly because they are at home.  They are 10-8 at home and New Orleans is 8-11 on the road.  It promises to be a close game and the total should be interesting to see, as I already mentioned their conflicting styles of play.