NBA Betting Odds: Indiana Pacers at Washington Wizards

Added on Feb 22, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

Sports betting enthusiasts are happy to see the end of the All Star break and the return of a long list of NBA odds on the board at their favorite sportsbook. We’ll look at another Eastern Conference matchup here as the Indiana Pacers head to DC to take on the Washington Wizards. Pacers are holding on to the 8th and final playoff spot in the East while the Wizards are trying to stay out of the conference basement.

Indiana Pacers at Washington Wizards
February 22, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

The fact that the Wizards are the worst road team in the NBA at 1-26 has somewhat obscured the fact that they’re not very good at home either. Sure, they’ve got a 14-13 record SU at the Verizon Center but they’re just 12-15 ATS and entered the All Star Break losing 8 of 10 and failing to cover in 6 of those games. Going back further, they’ve lost 12 of 15 going 5-10 ATS. Despite this dismal performance they’re perceived as being better than they really are due to the mainstream hype surrounding John Wall. Wall is a great talent, but he doesn’t have much around him and may be hitting the wall (no pun intended) as the demands of the grueling NBA regular season start to catch up with him.

The Pacers are essentially the diametric opposite of the Wizards–they’ve been a very solid team over the past month or so but are still perceived by the public as being a doormat. They did drop their final two games before the All Star Break but despite that have won 7 of their L10 SU going 6-4 ATS. The Pacers have started to play better since Frank Vogel took over as head coach and have taken care of business against opponents with losing records all season long. Pacers are 17-9 SU/15-2-2 ATS against opponents under .500 and have won 7 of their last 8 in this situation going 5-3 ATS. At this price we just need them to win the game straight up–the dynamic in this game is similar to the previous writeup where one team is trying to make the playoffs while the other is just playing out the string.

Bet Indiana Pacers -1 over Washington Wizards