Sunday NBA and we will see the Los Angeles Clippers travel to Chesapeake Energy Arena to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder. The game has a start time of 1:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ABC. Current Vegas betting odds have Oklahoma City listed as 4 point favorites, while the total is set at 210.
Analysis: The long road trip the Clippers are on may be taking its toll on the team as they have lost 3 in a row and 4 of their last 5 on the trip, which still has a date at Dallas tomorrow night to wrap up the 8 game trip. The Clippers are now 33-18 on the year and in 2nd place in the Pacific Division, 7.5 games behind the Warriors. The Clippers have gone 6-13 ATS in their last 19 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600 and 1-5 ATS in their last 6 road games, but they are 15-6 ATS the last 21 games in Oklahoma City. The Clippers have been a very good offensive team this year, ranking 3rd in scoring (106.5 ppg), 2nd in shooting, 5th in 3 point shooting and 23rd in FT shooting. Defensively the Clippers have been average at best as they come in ranked 19th in points allowed (100.3 ppg), 19th in defensive FG% and 16th in 3 point defense.
Will the Thunder ever go on the run that has been expected of them? Maybe if they can keep Durant on the court and even then it might not be enough. On Friday night the Thunder lost at home to New Orleans and Durant played in that game, plus Westbrook scored 48 in the game. The loss drops the team back to .500 at 25-25 and if the playoffs started today they would not be in them. OKC has gone 6-2-1 ATS in their last 9 home games vs. a team with a winning road record, but 3-13 ATS in their last 16 vs. the Western Conference and 3-12-1 ATS in their last 16 games following a ATS loss. The Thunder have been an average offensive team this year, ranking 18th in scoring (99.5 ppg), 20th in shooting, 27th in 3 point shooting and 18th in FT shooting (65.1%). Defensively the Thunder have been solid, ranking 10th in points allowed (98.5 ppg), 2nd in defensive FG% and 7th in 3 point defense.
Pick: I will take the Thunder in this game. The Clippers are on the last game of a long road trip and it has taken its toll on this team as they have lost 3 in a row, with the last 2 being by double digits. Those two were at Cleveland and Toronto and white the thunder have struggled of ;ate, they are better than those two teams. I expect the Thunder push tempo, which will take advantage of the tired legs that the Clippers have. The Clippers are 1-5 the last 6 in this series and I expect that continue with a win of at least 8 points by the Thunder here.
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Handicapping Tips: NBA Betting
Bryan Leonard and Steve Fezzik, from Pregame.com discuss some handicapping tips for betting the NBA.