Los Angeles Clippers at Orlando Magic
Tuesday, 2/8/11, 7:00 PM EDT
Opening Point Spread: Orlando -9.5
Current Betting Line: Orlando -9.5
Opening Total: 201.5
Current Total: 202.5
Los Angeles hopes to give a better effort than Sunday’s 97-79 loss to Miami and gain revenge from an earlier loss to Orlando. “We just weren’t very sharp and weren’t good offensively,” coach Vinny Del Negro stated. “The guys battled. Our bench was poor today. We didn’t get anything from the bench, which really hurt us.” The Clippers should be welcoming back Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman and Craig Smith relatively soon, which will add to the depth of the playing rotation. Gordon is especially important to the team’s success due to being the leading scorer at 24.1 points per night. Carrying the offense at this moment in time is rookie Blake Griffin, who has compiled 42 double-double efforts and currently averaging 22.9 points. Los Angeles is 16-18 ATS as an underdog this season and nearly a double-digit favorite on the NBA lines page tonight.
The Clippers enter with a 19-31 overall record, including a 2-4 mark on the road against the Eastern Conference. Los Angeles has lost eight games in a row to Orlando and its last win in tonight’s city came back on February 1, 2006. The team dropped the first meeting of the season, 94-85, with Gordon managing to score 28 points in a losing effort. Tonight will be the third game of a 14-day, eight-game road trip that will see them travel a total of 6,510 miles before returning to Los Angeles for the NBA All-Star break. The Clippers will be playing 21 of their remaining 32 games on the road.
Orlando must try and bounce back from a disappointing 91-80 loss to Eastern Conference-leading Boston. The Magic connected on just 3 of 24 shots from 3-point range and slipped 1 1/2 games behind Atlanta for fourth place in the conference. “The Miami Heat and Boston are rolling right now,” said All-Star center Dwight Howard. “We’re going to be OK. We’ve got things we’ve got to work on.” He managed to score 28 points and grab 13 points in the latest defeat and many in the organization are starting to question the trade that was made to acquire Gilbert Arenas. He missed all seven of his shots in 15 minutes against the Celtics on Sunday. Orlando is 20-6 ATS versus Pacific division teams over the past three years.
The Magic have won nine of the last 12 meetings at home in this particular series and won both games during the 2009-10 campaign. Orlando is currently 18-7 at home this season during its first year at the new Amway Center. The average margin of victory for the club at its new venue currently stands at 16.4 points per game.
Bettors may elect to back the Magic due to their 8-1 ATS mark as a favorite of 5.0 to 10.5 points, while the Clippers are 1-5 ATS as a road underdog.
