NBA Betting – Warriors Get the Brooms Out for LAC
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:39 am ESTPublished:
Los Angeles Clippers at Golden State Warriors (-9.5, 225.5 o/u)
The Los Angeles Clippers (43-26, 21-14 Away) will need a massive effort tonight if they want to avoid getting swept by the Golden State Warriors (63-7, 32-0 Home) in the regular season. LA and Golden State will go at it for the fourth and final time tonight at ORACLE Arena in Oakland (9:30 PM Eastern).
The Clippers have been struggling lately, losing four of their last five. The offense is there, but their defensive effort has been lacking: they have allowed 111.0 points per game in their last four losses, and that includes games against the low-scoring Memphis Grizzlies and Anthony Davis-less Pelicans.
The team was able to overcome the absence of leading scorer Blake Griffin for much of the year, but have looked fatigued of late. Point guard Chris Paul isn’t chalking up the skid to a short bench, though.
“There are no excuses. There is no fatigue,” said Paul to the Associated Press after losing 109-105 to the Pelicans on Sunday. “We lost. No excuses. We didn’t defend well enough. We waited too late to put our imprint on the game.”
Golden State is in a bit of a slump as well, but that’s only because of the team’s ridiculously high standards. After losing to San Antonio on Saturday, they had trouble putting away the Timberwolves in Minnesota, winning 109-104 despite being double-digit favorites.
The Warriors have won all three meetings against the Clippers this season. The first two were back-and-forth battles that ended in dramatic fashion. The last saw LA cover as four-point dogs thanks to a late rally, but the Warriors controlled the game.
While Griffin is still sidelined for LA, Golden State is dealing with its own injuries: Andre Iguodala (ankle) and Festus Ezeli (knee) will sit out again, while Andrew Bogut (toe) has been listed as doubtful.
The Clippers are 6-17 ATS in their last 23 at Golden State. I expect the Warriors to pile on the struggling Clippers tonight as LA feels the absence of Griffin more and more with each passing game.
Pick: Warriors (-9.5).
(Photo credit: Amin Eshaiker (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) via Wikimedia Commons.)
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.
