NBA Betting – Los Angeles Clippers at Oklahoma City Thunder

Los Angeles Clippers at Oklahoma City Thunder (-7, 209 o/u)

A battle between Western Conference playoff squads hits center stage tonight when the Los Angeles Clippers (41-23, 17-14 away) visit the Oklahoma City Thunder (35-28, 21-8 home) at Chesapeake Energy Arena (8:00 p.m. Eastern).

When the majority of season ticket holders saw this game on the schedule, they were probably ecstatic at the prospect of Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant going toe-to-toe. However, both stars are on the shelf at the time being, and both teams are turning to their respective point guards for more offense.

For L.A., Chris Paul has been superb since Griffin went down. He had an off-night, shooting-wise, on Monday, hitting just 1/6 against the Timberwolves, but he still found a way to contribute, handing out 15 dimes as the Clippers cruised to an 89-76 win.

The lack of offense from Paul was due, in part, to the fact that he’s struggling through a knee injury, himself.

“I couldn’t be as aggressive as I would like to. It just shows the depth of our team,” said Paul. “I’ve just got to be smart about it. I don’t want to hurt the team, but if I can contribute and help the team, we need all the bodies we can get.”

OKC, meanwhile, has won three of their last four games absent Durant, the reigning NBA MVP. Their own point guard, Russell Westbrook, has averaged an astonishing 40.6 points in the last three outings, and will be adding his own MVP trophy at the end of the year if he keeps up his strong play.

“It crosses my mind when we win, which is the most important thing,” Westbrook said of his recent scoring bonanza.

Currently, the Clippers sit fifth in the Western Conference, just half a game up on San Antonio. The Thunder are in a heated battle for the eighth and final playoff berth. They are currently tied with New Orleans for the coveted spot, but have two games in hand and can take over sole possession with back-to-back wins.

The Thunder are listed as seven-point favorites for tonight’s game and the game total is at 209. In addition to Griffin, the Clippers will also be without Jamal Crawford (16.4 PPG).

Trends: OKC has covered the spread in seven of the last ten against the Clippers, including the last three. Four of the last five have stayed under the game total.

(Photo credit: Keith Allison (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)