The Rockets are actually NBA Cup favorites over the Warriors, who they haven't beaten in 4 years

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win's basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here's Prince J. Grimes.

In some ways, four years isn't a very long time. You can still think about the new music you enjoyed four years ago, the shows you started watching and things like that, and many of those things are probably still relevant and in rotation today. They probably don't feel that old.

In other ways, though, four years can feel like a lifetime. Especially today, when you think about all the monumental (and catastrophic) things that have happened in the world over the last four years. The covid pandemic hadn't rocked us yet. Election deniers hadn't stormed The Capitol. Kendrick Lamar hadn't dropped Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, let alone demolished Drake in the greatest rap battle of all-time. To get more personal, my three-old son didn't exist and I wasn't a home-owner yet. Heck, I was still living in another state.

In other words, a lot can happen in four years. But you know one thing that didn't happen in the last four years? The Houston Rockets beating the Golden State Warriors. That's what.

No, really, it's been that long for the Rockets, and we're not far from the five-year anniversary of the last time they got a win over the Warriors. The date was Feb. 2, 2020, and to further demonstrate how long ago that was, Russell Westbrook and James Harden were still Rockets -- a team that hadn't yet started the rebuild they're only just now reaching the other side of. The Warriors started a rookie named Jordan Poole, and their dynasty appeared to be crumbling short of a fourth title after Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson suffered serious injuries in their finals loss to the Raptors a few months earlier and Steph Curry was lost for the season. The Rockets beat the Warriors by 30.

Since that game, Golden State has rattled off 15 straight wins over the Rockets. And let's not forget how even before the streak Golden State tormented Houston in the playoffs, eliminating them in four of the previous five years. The Warriors have been a thorn in the Rockets' side forever. Six of Houston's top eight leaders in minutes played this season have NEVER beaten the Warriors.

But today, Houston has a chance to change the script. Today, the Rockets play the Warriors in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup, and they're actually favored to win. They're hosting Golden State in a knockout game with -135 moneyline odds and a -2.5 spread. Today is the day they snap the streak! Right?

Bettors certainly seem to think so. At BetMGM, 69% of bets and 58% of money on the spread has Houston covering. And look, I know, it's just a regular-season game at the end of the day, but this would be a big deal for a young Rockets team that appears to finally be turning a corner. At 16-8, they're third in the Western Conference but they haven't done anything of significance yet. Advancing through the NBA Cup would be a step in the right direction. Especially doing so with a win over their frequent tormentors, Steph Curry, Draymond Green and the Warriors. It'll be fun seeing them take their best shot.

Injuries are plaguing the NBA

If it seems like injuries are up more than usual this season, that's because they are. And they aren't just up by a little. Injuries are way up year-over-year, according to data from Jeff Stotts’ InStreetClothes injury tracker database.

In Week 7 of this season alone, NBA players missed more than double the amount of games they missed in the same week last season due to injuries or illness.

When the difference is so stark from one year to the next, it's only natural for us to want to find a reason for it. There has to be something causing players to miss all this time, right? Well, not necessarily.

As our Mike Sykes wrote, sometimes injuries just can't be explained:

"Again, there’s no rhyme or reason to this. At least not any obvious one. There are certainly theories out there as to why players are so injured. Maybe it’s simply a matter of players being forced to play more because of the league’s new rules. Or maybe it’s just a trend inherent to this era in the NBA, where AAU basketball is so prevalent. Players play so much from early middle school up to the professional ranks.

It could also just be dumb luck! That’s more of where I lean at this point. We could fast forward to a month from now when some of these players are set to be healthy again and things might look completely different. We’ll have to wait and see."

I think there's something to that. With players like Kawhi Leonard and Joel Embiid returning to the court, we could see this trend change real soon.

Shootaround

-- Here's Sykes again on the NBA ruining the greatest Christmas commercial ever

-- LeBron James-Warriors trade rumors got shut down by 1 report

-- LeBron is about to break another "unbreakable" record owned by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar record

-- Shaq accidentally broke the Inside the NBA video board by slapping it

Thanks for reading as always. Catch you next week.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: The Rockets are actually NBA Cup favorites over the Warriors, who they haven't beaten in 4 years