Brooklyn at L.A. Clippers
Time: 8 PM CT (NBA LP)
Spread: LAC -7
Total: 223
Odds c/o 5dimes
The Brooklyn Nets are 20-43 with an 8-22 mark on the road where it will take on the L.A. Clippers at Staples Center.
The Clippers are 7-point favorites at home where the team has posted a 17-13 mark this season. The game will air at 8 PM (Central) on NBA League Pass.
BROOKLYN
The Brooklyn Nets have lost 10 of its past 11 overall, with the last being a 116-111 defeat at the hands of the Sacramento Kings. The Kings won the game in OT as Bodgan Bogdanovic hit a go-ahead runner with 1:06 remaining in the game and then added a pair of free throws to seal it up. The Nets have struggled even against the other poor teams in the league but still find itself ahead of both Orlando and Atlanta in the Eastern Conference Standings. Brooklyn’s pick will not be retained in the 2018 draft, so the team has no real impetus to actually tank, either.
Brooklyn has been without its starting backcourt of Jeremy Lin and D’Angelo Russell for most of the 2017-18 season. The team has relied on an assortment of developing role players like Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Allen Crabbe, Caris LeVert and veteran DeMarre Carroll to fill the gaps, and the team has actually overachieved in some senses. Carroll is having a good season with 13 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per night in 30 minutes a game, but Brooklyn is without its primary scorers, its duo of guards.
Russell averaged 15.8 points per game in his 29 appearances this season, and he has averaged 16.6 points and 7.8 assists over the Nets’ past five, including a 25 point, six assists, five rebound effort in a 123-129 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Russell is averaging 13.7 points and 6.3 assists over his past 10 games, and he is shooting 91.7 percent from the line over his past five. He can ideally lead this team to a far better offensive outcome.
CLIPPERS
Los Angeles may have dealt superstar Blake Griffin, but it still retained leading scorer Lou Williams and re-signed him to a contract. He is averaging 23.3 points 2.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 32.5 minutes a night. The Clippers seemingly have just slid new acquisition Tobias Harris directly into the role once occupied by Griffin, and the role has been a revelation for Harris.
Through his first two games (both wins) he averaged 21.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and two assists per game while posting a PER of 17.4. Albeit, those figures are all shy of what Griffin did, but not tremendously so. Pairing Harris along with sharpshooter Danilo Gallinari gives the Clips a good 1-2 scoring punch in the frontcourt, and Austin Rivers is really pretty damn good for a guy who had already been billed a bust.
This year, Rivers is averaging 15.8 points and 3.6 assists per game in 32 minutes a night, thriving as a three-positional talent that surely was expected to be this good, if only on his father’s legacy. DeAndre Jordan was thought to be a trade target for several teams, but he remains in Los Angeles. ‘’
It was rumored the Clippers offered him to Houston in exchange for Clint Capela and were rebuked, but this writer makes no claim to such sources or validates the validity of said-rumors. No matter the case, Jordan forms the third part of a staunch frontline for the Clippers and the team hardly lacks in depth.
Avery Bradley was also acquired with Harris, and he is generally regarded as one of the most underrated players and best one-on-one perimeter defenders in the Association. Bradley is averaging just 10 points and three assists through his first two games, but the last outing he was an efficient 6 of 10 from the floor with three steals.
He makes his impact, in short.
The Clippers might not be the chic pick as true contenders, but it reasons that L.A. can absolutely sneak into the playoffs and be a formidable opponent (in other words not be swept necessarily) to one of the top-tier teams in the West.
The team has sufficient leadership, talent, and just because its identity is not really the same without Chris Paul and Blake Griffin does not mean that these pros cannot come together to gel quickly before the postseason arrives. L.A. should remain on the radar of dark horse sneaky teams that have gone under the radar. There is enough talent on the roster to put up a fight.
