NBA Betting – Bruising Pistons Take a Swing at the Champs

Detroit Pistons at Golden State Warriors (-14, 208.5 o/u)

The Detroit Pistons (5-1, 3-0 Away) have been a pleasant surprise at the start of the NBA season, but now we’ll see just how big a leap Stan Van Gundy’s team has made when they face the only unbeaten team remaining in the league, the Golden State Warriors (7-0, 4-0 Home), at Oracle Arena tonight (10:30 PM Eastern).

The Pistons started a six-game Western Conference road swing this weekend by handling the Phoenix Suns (100-92) on Friday and the Portland Trail Blazers (120-103) last night. The team is averaging 108.7 PPG in their three road wins this season.

Against Portland, Reggie Jackson, whom many think isn’t worth the $80 million contract he got in the offseason, scored 26 of his career-high 40 points in the fourth quarter.

“I told [Jackson] it was time for him to take over,” Detroit’s Andre Drummond told the Associated Press. “I told him he needed to step it up and take over in [the] fourth quarter.”

However, the biggest surprise this season has been Drummond, himself. The center added 29 points and a whopping 27 rebounds against the Blazers and now leads the league with 20.3 boards per game, almost seven more than the second man on the list (the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan). As a team, the Pistons lead the NBA with 51 rebounds a game.

Golden State has been toying with teams this year. Their only close game of the season came last Wednesday against the rival Clippers, with Golden State beating Los Angeles, 112-108, on a late three by Steph Curry. Last season’s MVP leads the league with 33.3 points per game.

Just how good have the Warriors been out of the gate? They shot a season-worst 41.3-percent on Saturday and still beat the Kings 103-94 in Sacramento.

“We couldn’t get our shots to go in – it happens,” interim coach Luke Walton told the AP. “But we found a way to grind it out. We had some wide open looks that wouldn’t go down. It was one of those random nights.”

The Warriors are 0-6 ATS in their last six games as a home favorite of 11 or greater, though. And the Pistons are 6-1 ATS in their last seven games as an underdog of 11 or greater. The Warriors are dominant at home, but were pushed to the limit by the Clippers in their last game at Oracle. With another strong squad coming to town, 14 points is too many to swallow.

Pick: Pistons +14.

(Photo Credit: Keith Allison (Originally posted to Flickr)[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/].)