NBA Betting Picks: Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Clippers

Added on Dec 22, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

A pair of teams currently in fourth place in their respective divisions will face off on Wednesday night as the Los Angeles Clippers host the Houston Rockets. Houston is currently 13-15 and 1 1/2 games ahead of last place Memphis in the Southwest Division. The Clippers are in a similar position albeit with a worse record–they’re 8-21 but are also 1 1/2 games ahead of last place Sacramento in the Pacific Division.

Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Clippers
December 22, 2010 5:35 PM Pacific

The Rockets are playing remarkably well considering that they’ve dealt with a number of injuries this year–not the least of which is a season ending foot injury to Yao Ming. They enter this matchup having won 7 of their last 10 and have covered 9 of their last 11 games. They’ve already won and covered the first two games on their ‘California bottom feeders’ road trip against Golden State and Sacramento. We expect that they’ll find the going a bit rougher against a Clippers team that is finally putting the pieces together around their assortment of young superstars led by Blake Griffin.

Clippers have won and covered three straight and as we noted the last time we used them they are a team very dependent on game tempo. Against teams allowing more than 99 PPG they’re 11-4 ATS, though against teams allowing *fewer* than 99 PPG they’re 4-10 ATS. Houston has the #24 scoring defense in the NBA allowing 104.5 PPG. That’s not surprising for a young team with so much talent–they haven’t figured out how to play good team defense yet but if you try to go uptempo with them they’ll make you pay. Houston is 8-8 ATS away from home but only 5-11 SU–that’s significant since at this price they have to win this game outright to cash a ticket. We’d much rather have the talented young Clippers in this spot.

Bet Los Angeles Clippers +1 over Houston Rockets