NBA Betting Picks: Washington Wizards at Charlotte Bobcats

Added on Jan 07, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

Two of the Eastern Conference’s bottom feeders will face off in Charlotte, NC on Saturday as the hometown Bobcats host the Washington Wizards. The Wizards are neck and neck with Cleveland for the worst record in the Eastern Conference, while the Bobcats aren’t far off the pace with a 12-21 record.

Washington Wizards at Charlotte Bobcats
January 8, 2011 4:00 PM Pacific

Better play following a coaching change is a common occurrence in all sports, and we expect to see some improvement–at least in the short term–from the Bobcats under new coach Paul Silas. Silas’ gameplan is a 180 degree switch from Larry Brown, and the players are reportedly enthusiastic about the new ‘up tempo’ philosophy. In reality, it’s probably a better fit for Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace than Brown’s emphasis on defensive tenacity.

Despite their shabby YTD record the Bobcats have been a respectable team at home going 8-9 SU and actually have a winning ATS mark as a favorite (7-5 ATS). They actually look like a decent value at this price and that’s especially true against the Wizards who are the worst road team in the league–at least from a SU perspective. Washington is the only remaining NBA team without a win on the road (0-17) and they’re not much better against the spread going 5-12 ATS. As bad as that is, this is a particularly troublesome spread category for them–as road underdogs of +3′ to +6 points Washington is 0-5 SU/ATS this year and 3-20 SU/6-16-1 ATS since 2008. Performance in certain pointspread categories may look like a fairly arbitrary metric, but its a good indication of how a team performs against a certain class level. In this case, its a reflection that Washington struggles on the road against evenly matched opponents and/or opponents that are marginally better. Charlotte has had no problem with Washington in recent years, currently on a 8-2 SU/7-3 ATS run in the series including 4-0 SU/3-1 ATS at home.

Bet Charlotte Bobcats -4′ over Washington Wizards