Friday night NBA and we will see the Cleveland Cavaliers travel to the Staples Center to take on the Los Angeles Clippers. The game has a start time of 10:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN. Current Vegas betting odds have the Clippers listed as 8 point favorites, while the total is set at 207.5.
Analysis: The Cleveland Cavaliers have not had the kind of start to the year that they were expecting. in the beginning is was a bit of chemistry that was the problem and then the Injury bug hit Lebron for a few weeks and now their seems to be a power struggle between Lebron and HC Blatt. Cleveland is currently 20-20 on the year, including 9-11 on the road. The Cavs are 8-21 ATS in their last 29 road games vs. a team with a winning home record and 1-6 ATS in their last 7 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600. Cleveland has been an average offensive squad this year, ranking 17th in scoring (100.0 ppg), 18th in shooting, 20th in 3 point shooting and 13th in FT shooting. Defensively the Cavaliers have not been all that good, ranking 19th in points allowed (100.2 ppg), 29th in defensive FG% and 18th in 3 point defense.
The Los Angeles Clippers have had a solid start to their year, as they come in with a 26-13 record on the year, which includes a 17-6 mark at home on the year. Despite their good start they are still 6.5 games behind the Warriors in the Pacific division. The Clippers are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games overall, but just 2-7 ATS in their last 9 vs. the Central division and 1-5-1 ATS in their last 7 Friday games. The Clippers have been very good offensive team his year, ranking 5th in scoring (106.2 ppg), 4th in shooting, 4th in 3 point shooting and 16th in FT shooting. Defensively the Clippers have been rather average, ranking 16th in points allowed (99.8 ppg), 19th in defensive FG% and 13th in 3 point defense.
Pick: Tough one to call here, but I will go with the Clippers to get the job done in this one. The Cavs beat the Lakers last night but the Clippers are a different animal altogether and they are actually bat good team, while the Lakers are not. Cleveland has many internal problems, as well as not being a good team on the court. That is something that the Clippers will take advantage of. The Clippers are 17-6 at home so far this year and they will easily beat a Cleveland team that just never really materialized into the team we thought they would be.
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