The Houston Rockets are hurting right now, and they probably don't want to be thinned out any further. The question is how the absence of a star player might affect what happens when they take the floor against the Sacramento Kings inside the bubble on Sunday night. Game time is 8:05 PM ET at the HP Field House at ESPN's Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando.

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The Rockets (43-25 SU, 32-36 ATS) aren't really in a position to improve their spot in the Western Conference playoff order, so perhaps keeping everybody in one piece is a priority. And that brings the situation of Russell Westbrook into focus.

Westbrook, who was brought on board to team with James Harden in a powerful 1-2 punch, has a quad injury, and that kept him out of the last game, a 113-97 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. Coach Mike D'Antoni has indicated that he will likely not see any action on Sunday night. In that respect, he joins Eric Gordon, who has been sidelined. So that takes care of the second-leading scorer and the top gun who often comes off the bench.

This might cause the Rockets to shift gears a bit, and to some extent that is what they did against the Lakers, who were held to just two triples for the entire game. By contrast, Houston hit 21 shots from beyond the arc.

In the odds at BetAnySports through which we will do our NBA picks for Sunday night, the Rockets are laying points:

Houston Rockets -6
Sacramento Kings +6

Over 233.5 points -110
Under 233.5 points -110

The Rockets can get firepower from sources other than Westbrook or Gordon; after all, Harden had 39 against the Lakers. But they are also going to have to find other ways to win. And that includes stopping the other team. Robert Covington, who was acquired before the trade deadline, is not a big scorer, but he has been seen on the All-Defensive team. And when you see a guy who tallies just eight points but can register a +29 while on the floor, you definitely see the effect on him being out there. And that's exactly the kind of thing D'Antoni has been looking for.

One of the objectives or subtracting Clint Capela and inserting the 6-7 Covington was to make this team quicker on defense and thus much better suited to get out and defend at the three-point line.

The Kings (29-40 SU, 35-32-2 ATS) have done a but of Jekyll-and-Hyde over the last couple of games. They exploded for 49 points in the first quarter and 140 for the game against New Orleans, then turned around and met a sterner test against surprising Brooklyn, shooting only 30% (12-for-40) from long-distance.

Can Sacramento get off enough three-point shots to make a difference? Can they make them? Defensively, this is a little different Houston than the one they made 20 triples against in December. We know that the top concern for D'Antoni right now is to stay healthy. But he has not dipped deep into his bench, going with just eight men in the rotation in each of the seeding games thus far. Perhaps a more defensive posture here. And the Kings are one of those teams forever trying to find the winning combination, usually without a lot of success. We're going UNDER on the total.

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