NBA · Final · Playoffs round 1, game 3 · HOU leads 2–0updated 09:04 UTC

Houston Rockets vs Minnesota Timberwolves

at Minnesota Timberwolves

No game odds posted yet

HOU 105 – MIN 121

Final

We had no picks in this game; every posted line is still scored below.

Getting a better price than most bookmakers offer for the same line is the only thing on this page that, measured over many past bets, made money; player rates are context, not tips.

Explore every player and prop

How to read this page

A pick is a player line, for example Under 13.5 points, that we published before the game together with the price we found for it. We do not take bets.
Odds are shown in the decimal format: 1.93 means you get back 1.93 for every 1 staked, so a higher number pays more. The American format (−108 means risk 108 to win 100; +111 means risk 100 to win 111) appears only in the Data log at the bottom of the page.
'Posted at' is the price we found when we published the pick; 'better' is a higher price for the same line at another bookmaker. Taking the better price is the one thing on this page that, measured over many past bets, made money.
'Market puts Under at 48.5%' is the chance implied by all bookmakers' prices together, with their built-in margin removed. Pinnacle is a bookmaker whose prices are widely treated as the most accurate reference, so it is the one we compare against.
A player's rate is how often that player has gone over the line this season, for example over in 41 of 78 games (52.6%), with a likely range such as 32–52%: fewer games means a wider range, and under 10 games we show no rate word at all.
'Past record stronger than the price' means the whole likely range sits above the chance the bookmakers' price implies; 'weaker' means below; 'agrees with the price' means the price sits inside the range, which is the usual case. None of these is a tip.
'Not measurable' is the usual honest answer: too few games to tell a real difference from chance.
'What could go wrong' lists the facts that can change a line: who is out, whether the starting lineup is confirmed, expected playing time (RotoWire's estimate, typically off by about 4 minutes), rest, and how many bookmakers price each line.
After the final, every pick is checked against the official stats and compared with the last price before the game started, the market's most informed price; getting a better price than that is the fairest test of a pick, whether or not it won. A tie means the player landed exactly on the line and the stake is returned; lines ending in .5 cannot tie.
Results are given for every 1 staked: 'would have returned +0.93' means a stake of 1 would have come back with 0.93 in profit. We do not stake anything; the record is what a stake of 1 on each pick would have done. Our record counts a smaller stake when the price advantage was small.
S beside a name marks an expected starter. Times are shown in your device's time zone; our data is recorded in US Eastern Time (ET). Team codes are the league's three-letter abbreviations.
'Your prediction' lets you pick Over or Under on any line before the game starts; we check your predictions the same way and keep your record, and one game of results proves nothing.
Team codes on this page: HOU = Houston Rockets, MIN = Minnesota Timberwolves.

Picks and prices

Odds of at least 1.70 only · highest odds first · results checked

A line is the number a bookmaker sets, e.g. 13.5 points; Over means more than it, Under fewer. Odds 1.93 pay 1.93 for every 1 staked. 'Posted at' is the price we found when we published the pick; after the game it is compared with the last price before the start.

Picks for this game are not posted yet. The players below are up to date.

Why the better price matters

In our past tests, simply taking the highest price offered for a line earned more than any of our own forecasts did.

In that test (25 Aug 2026), taking the best price returned about 2.8 more for every 100 staked than the price we posted did.

The players

No player lines yet · 0 players listed

Rate: the share of this season's games in which the player finished above tonight's line. S beside a name marks an expected starter.

No starting lineup yet; showing every player with a line · playoff series: too few games to measure a difference

Context only A player's rate describes the past; it is not a tip and has not been tested as one. Expected minutes come from RotoWire, a lineup news service.

Sign in to see each player's rate The numbers below (for example 15.5 points) are the lines the bookmakers actually posted.

Houston Rocketsplaying MIN

No player list for HOU.

Minnesota Timberwolvesplaying HOU

No player list for MIN.

What could go wrong

updated 09:04 UTC

Who is out

Nobody is listed as injured on either team.

Lineup changes unavailable right now.

Lineups

Expected starting lineup, not yet confirmed

Playing time

No playing-time estimates yet.

Our check: these minute estimates (RotoWire) are typically off by about 4 minutes.

Rest

HOU had 148 days off before this game · MIN had 134 days off before this game.

Bookmakers

No player lines posted for this game.

When a player is out, that player's lines are removed: in our past results this helped. Guessing which teammates benefit was also tested and lost money, so nothing else on this page is adjusted for it.

What happened

One game proves nothing.

FinalWe had no picks in this game · every posted line is still scored below

Final stats not available yet.

No player lines were posted in this game.

Each prediction is recorded as if you had staked 1 at the line you saw, and your record is shown here. One game tells you nothing yet.

More context

Head to head

MIN vs HOU · last 23 games · MIN leads · MIN record 15–8 · average score 116.5–113.9 · MIN has won by 2.6 on average

Team results are background only; they say nothing about any single player's line.

10 Apr · MIN 136 at HOU 132MIN won

25 Mar · HOU 108 at MIN 110MIN won

What each defense gives up per game

HOU gives up109.4 points · 39.6 rebounds · 24.4 assists · 35.2% from three-point range

MIN gives up114.6 points · 43.8 rebounds · 25.9 assists · 35.3% from three-point range

Defense by position

How much this is worth

Defense-by-position numbers are mostly random from season to season; shown for context only. We tested it: a team's defense-by-position numbers from one half of the season do not predict the other half, so treat them as noise.

HOU gives up 109.4 points a game · 5th of 30 · league average 115.3−5.9 vs average

MIN gives up 114.6 points a game · 13th of 30 · league average 115.3about league average

How the game odds moved

No history of the game odds on file.

Data log (technical)

Technical detail for auditing; the plain version is above. Internal ids and formula names print here only.

Line-shopping measurement: project_conditional_minutes_refuted

Defense-by-position measurement: split-half reliability r = -0.033 across 12 cells (7 of 12 negative) against a shuffle null of 0.000; a placebo using the wrong position family reproduced the effect to within 0.12pp · project_dvp_blowout_gate_refuted · 2026-08-26

Our picks, raw · 0

No raw pick rows for this game.

Checked results, raw (basketball-stats shorthand) · 0

No graded rows for this game.

Data fetches · 33

sds rest/team (away)ok 200 · 193 ms

sds rest/team (home)ok 200 · 194 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-20)ok 200 · 195 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-19)ok 200 · 196 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-18)ok 200 · 197 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-17)ok 200 · 197 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-16)ok 200 · 198 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-15)ok 200 · 199 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-14)ok 200 · 199 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-13)ok 200 · 201 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-12)ok 200 · 202 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-11)ok 200 · 203 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-10)ok 200 · 204 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-09)ok 200 · 205 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-08)ok 200 · 206 ms

sds games/date (2018-04-07)ok 200 · 207 ms

grading picks/nightlyok 200 · 210 ms

grading verdict/boardok 200 · 213 ms

sds schedule/team (meetings)ok · 217 ms

sds defense/team (away)ok 200 · 218 ms

sds defense/team (home)ok 200 · 220 ms

sds analytics opponent_defense (away)ok 200 · 221 ms

sds analytics opponent_defense (home)ok 200 · 223 ms

sds games/{id}ok 200 · 231 ms

sds lineups/{id}ok 200 · 233 ms

sds players/team (away)ok 200 · 10 ms

sds players/team (home)ok 200 · 11 ms

grading clv/picksok 200 · 114 ms

sds injuries/game/{id}ok 200 · 344 ms

sds games/{id}/boxscoreok 200 · 349 ms

sds history (h2h)ok · 357 ms

dh lineups/{id}/deltafailed 502 · 480 ms

odds game timelineok 200 · 1869 ms

Classic view →

The older, longer version of this page is still available as the classic view. Nothing there is tracked in our results; this page is.