Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs continues on Monday and we will see Golden State Warriors travel to the Staples Center to take on the Los Angeles Clippers in game 2 of their best-of-seven series. The game has a start time of 10:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on TNT. Vegas odds have the Clippers listed as 8 point favorites, while the total sits at 212.
Stat Packs: The Golden State Warriors went 51-31 during the regular season to reach the playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 1991 and 1992. The Warriors then took care of the LA Clippers to take a 1-0 lead in the best of 7 series. The Clippers were one of 3 road teams to win on opening night of the playoffs and now have gone 25-17 on the road this year. Golden State is a very good offensive team as they come in ranked 10th in the league in scoring at 104.3 ppg, while also ranking 9th in shooting overall (46.2%) and 4th in 3pt shooting (38.0%). Just 3 players average in double figures on this team, led by Stephen Curry, who scores 24.0 ppg on the year. Klay Thomson is next at 18.4 ppg, while close behind is David lee, who averages 18.2 ppg. At the defensive end of the floor the Warriors are also very solid as they rank 10th in points allowed (99.5 ppg), 4th in defensive FG% (43.6%) and 4th in 3pt defense (34.4%).
The LA Clippers Came into the playoffs as the 3 rd seed, but were surprised in the open game to the Warriors by a 109-105 score. The Clippers have now gone 34-8 at home this year. This was one of the most dangerous teams heading into the playoffs as they had won 20 of their last 25 games to End the regular season, but game 1 just didn’t go as they expected. Offensively the Clippers are 1st in the league in scoring (107.9 ppg) and 3rd in shooting overall (47.4%). They do struggle from long range, hitting just 35.2% of their threes (22nd) and they also struggle at the charity stripe, hitting just 73% of their freebies, to rank 26th. Blake Griffin leads the offense with 24.1 ppg, but had just 16 points in game 1. Chris Paul leads the team in rebounding (10.9 rpg) and is 2nd on the team in scoring at 19.3 ppg. He had 28 points in game 1. Jamal Crawford (18.6 ppg) and JJ Reddick (15.2 ppg) round out the top 4 scorers for this high powered attack. Defensively the Clippers allowed 101.0 ppg, which is 14th in the league, but teams only shoot 44.1% vs them overall (5th) and 33.2% from long range (1st).
Pick: Im going with the Clippers in this one, as I look for them to bounce back from that game 1 loss. The Clippers lost just 8 games on this floor all year, so it is not something they are accustomed to. During the regular season the Clippers beat the Warriors by 13 and 11 points on this floor, so that are more than capable of doing it again, especially coming off a loss. The Clippers are 14-5 ATS their last 19 games off a SU loss and the home team is 6-2 ATS the last 8 in this series. I look for both trends to continue here.
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NBA 1st Round Playoff Preview
Pregame.com's Ken Thomson & Marco D'Angelo preview each series in the 1st round of the NBA playoffs.