NBA Betting – Golden State Warriors at Atlanta Hawks
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
Golden State Warriors at Atlanta Hawks (-1, 219.5 o/u)
Arguably the game of the year in the NBA goes tonight as the East-leading Atlanta Hawks (41-9) host the West-leading Golden State Warriors (39-8) at Phillips Arena (7:30 p.m. Eastern).
On Monday, the Hawks saw their 19-game win streak halted in New Orleans. But the team rebounded with a 105-96 win over division-rival Washington on Wednesday.
The Warriors cooled off a bit at the end of January, losing two straight to the Bulls and Jazz. However, Golden State has gotten back to its winning ways since then, taking three straight over the Suns, Kings, and Mavericks.
After downing Sacramento on Tuesday, head coach Steve Kerr was pleased with the way his team shared the ball. “I love the box score. I love having a lot of different guys scoring and not having all the points concentrated on a few guys,” said Kerr. “It just makes us hard to guard.”
The excellent ball movement was nothing new for the Warriors this year. The team averages 27.3 assists per night, best in the NBA.
The defense has fallen off a bit for Golden State, however. After sitting top-ten for much of the season, the team is now 16th in the NBA in points-against, giving up nearly 100 per game.
And it’s at the defense end of the floor where the Hawks really thrive. Atlanta is third in the Association in points allowed, surrendering just 96.5 per night.
The Hawks are no slouch on offense, either, pouring in over 103 per night. Paul Millsap and Jeff Teague lead the way, scoring 17.2 and 16.8 points per game, respectively.
Trend-wise, the Hawks have taken seven of the last ten from Golden State. The betting opened with the Hawks as a one-point favorite, and the total at 215.
Given that Atlanta hasn’t lost at home in a month and a half (Dec. 26 vs. the Milwaukee Bucks), taking the Hawks and laying the point looks like the better option.
(Photo credit: Keith Allison (flickr) “Stephen Curry” [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/]. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
