NBA Betting – Wall and Reeling Wizards Host Warriors
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:39 am ESTPublished:
Golden State Warriors (-10.5, 224.5 o/u) at Washington Wizards
The Washington Wizards (21-25, 10-15 Home), losers of four of their last five, have the unenviable task of hosting the best team in the NBA, the Golden State Warriors (44-4, 22-4 Away), tonight at the Verizon Center (8:00 PM Eastern).
Washington’s skid has dropped the team five games back of the Hawks in the Southeast and three back of the Pacers for the final playoff spot in the East. The Wizards play their next two at home, but that’s not necessarily good news. John Wall and company are five games under .500 at the Verizon Center and one game over on the road.
They were two games over .500 on the road until Monday’s 114-98 pasting at the hands of OKC. The Wizards gave up 36 first-quarter points and never really recovered.
“When you’re playing from behind and you’re getting a team that’s making shots and getting offensive rebounds when they’re missing, it’s tough to win,” Wall said to the Associated Press.
Washington allowed OKC to shoot over 50-percent from the field, continuing a concerning trend for the defensively suspect squad (105 points against per game on the year). Second-chance points continue to kill the team. It gave up 14 offensive boards to the Thunder while grabbing just two of their own. The Wizards are now third-last in the league in rebounding differential (-4.2).
They’re likely to get crushed on the glass again tonight against a Golden State team that is top-five in rebounding (+3.5).
The Warriors are riding a seven-game winning streak, dropping the Knicks 116-95 on Sunday. Klay Thompson led the team with 34 points, and he’s now averaging 37 PPG over the past three.
Thompson’s 14 of 18 performance from the field was timely as Steph Curry had a rare off night (5 of 17 from the floor, including 3 of 11 from three).
“Klay was terrific, and that’s the advantage we have with our backcourt,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told the AP. “If one guy is not shooting well, usually the other guy is. It’s very rare they both have poor shooting nights.”
Betting trends: Washington is 1-4 ATS (0-5 SU) in the last five at home against Golden State. The total has gone UNDER in nine of Washington’s last 13 home games.
Pick: Warriors -10.5.
(Photo credit: Keith Allison (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/legalcode]. 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.
