NBA Basketball Preview: Golden State Warriors at Philadelphia 76ers

Added on Mar 05, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

Busy day of NBA betting action on Sunday and in this post we’ll take a look at a non-conference game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Golden State Warriors. The Sixers are one of the surprise teams of the season. Coach Doug Collins has them playing very good basketball and they’re over .500 for the first time in ages. The Warriors may not have improved so dramatically, but they have gotten better under their new coach Keith Sharp. He’s pulled the team out of the West basement and they’ve got an outside shot at a playoff spot.

Golden State Warriors at Philadelphia 76ers
March 6, 2011 3:05 PM Pacific

We cashed a ticket on the Warriors on Friday night when they mounted a furious fourth quarter run to cover a generous underdog pointspread against the Celtics in Boston. Golden State’s uptempo style is often a difficult matchup for Eastern Conference teams, but we’re thinking that result had more to do with the Celtics’ tendency to ‘play down’ to their opponents at home. In this matchup we don’t expect things to go quite as well for Golden State. The Warriors will be playing their fourth road game in six days and could be in a bit of a ‘letdown’ situation after their improbable comeback in Boston came up short. Golden State hasn’t been playing particularly well lately, losing 5 of 6 SU going 2-4 ATS.

Philadelphia is still an easy team to overlook with few big name stars and their dismal play in recent years, but they’ve become a very tough home team. They’re 20-10 SU/19-11 ATS at the Wachovia Center. Looking at the specific pointspread category records relevant to this game you can see how they ‘ambush’ opponents who don’t see them regularly which has translated into a 14-7 ATS record against the Western Conference. They still struggle when they step up in class but they’ve started to distance themselves from their legacy of losing by beating up on substandard opponents–they’re 19-11 SU/ATS against opponents with losing records and enter this game on a 9-1 SU/8-2 ATS run in that role.

The Sixers are 12-5 SU/10-7 ATS in their last 17 games with their only losses to solid opponents in that stretch (Dallas, Memphis twice, Orlando and New York). Golden State won easily at home in December and the Sixers are 24-12 ATS in a revenge role this season. We look for the blowout to be reversed this time with Philadelphia coming out on top.

Bet Philadelphia 76ers -7 over Golden State Warriors