NBA Betting Odds: Los Angeles Clippers at Detroit Pistons

Added on Dec 17, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

NBA betting on Friday night serves up a matchup of inter-conference also rans as the Los Angeles Clippers head East to face the Detroit Pistons in Motown. Pistons are neck and neck with Cleveland for last place in the Central Division but that’s nothing compared to the Clippers. Along with Sacramento, they’ve got only five wins this year–the fewest in the NBA.

Los Angeles Clippers at Detroit Pistons
December 17, 2010 4:35 PM Pacific

At first glance, the line on this game makes sense. It’s a matchup of two bad teams who have a combined record of 13-39 so making the Pistons 3′ point home favorites–the usual home court advantage–is hard to argue with. Upon further examination, however, we’re thinking the home team represents a good value. The Clippers have some decent talent including future superstar Blake Griffin but a combination of injuries, inexperience, and lack of depth have created a mess in Los Angeles. The Clippers have been reasonably competitive against the spread this year–despite only winning 5 games SU they’re 12-14 against the number. They even have a winning ATS record on the road (6-5) despite a brutal 0-11 SU record away from the Staples Center.

Detroit may have slipped somewhat from the pointspread juggernaut they were at the first of the season, but we’re thinking they’re still a much better team than the Clippers. Teams like Los Angeles do well in situations where they’re getting big pointspreads against mid level teams who think they can ‘phone it in’ against one of the league’s bottom feeders. That’s why their pointspread record against teams with a winning record (7-7 ATS) is better than against losing teams (5-7 ATS). Losing teams are also desperate for wins and don’t pass up an opportunity to put one in the books when the Clippers come to town–that’s also why L.A. is just 2-10 SU against sub .500 teams. They’ve also been brutalized in non-conference matchups this year (0-6 SU/ATS). Pistons are 7-5 ATS at home, 4-1 ATS against the Pacific Division and 2-0 as a home favorite in this price range (-3′ to -6 points). Detroit has dominated head to head play on their home court, currently on a SU run of 11-2 and an ATS run of 10-3. We’ll lay a small price with a generally better Pistons team.

Bet Detroit Pistons -3′ over Los Angeles Clippers