NBA Betting Preview: Golden State Warriors at Indiana Pacers

Added on Mar 01, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

More NBA non-conference action on Tuesday night as the Golden State Warriors head to Indianapolis to take on the Indiana Pacers. Pacers have played much better since Frank Vogel took over as head coach and are currently trying to hold down the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Warriors have shown some improvement this season but are still off the pace for postseason play in the Western Conference.

Golden State Warriors at Indiana Pacers
March 1, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

We respect the incremental improvements that the Warriors have made under Keith Smart, but some things haven’t really changed as of yet. Golden State is still a bad defensive team–maybe not *as* bad but still bad enough to have the #28 scoring defense in the NBA. They’re also not a very good road team–the Warriors are 7-19 SU on the road this season though they are a decent 14-12 ATS. They’re generally a breakeven proposition in most pointspread categories though they have a 9-12 ATS record in non-conference play and a 3-5 ATS record against Central Division foes. They enter this matchup on a 3 game losing streak and are coming off an outright loss at Minnesota last time out.

Indiana still struggles when they step up in class, but they started taking care of business against opponents with losing records (16-10 ATS this year). The Pacers have scored 100+ points in every game except one since Vogel took over as head coach and Danny Granger in particular has been playing very solid basketball since the switch. Indiana should have a field day against a porous Warriors defense that allows 105.8 PPG (only Cleveland and Minnesota are worse). Pacers do have a road game at Oklahoma City on deck, but with the tenuous state of their playoff positioning on the line we don’t expect them to miss an opportunity to put a relatively easy win in the books against an opponent that is a favorable tactical matchup for them. We’ll look to play on the Warriors down the road at home–they’re a solid 19-13 on their own floor–but on the road they’re strictly a ‘go against’. Pacers win and cover here with relative ease.

Bet Indiana Pacers -5′ over Golden State Warriors