L.A. Clippers at Houston Rockets
Time: 7 PM CT (ESPN)
Spread: HOU -12.5
Total: 221
Odds c/o 5dimes
The Houston Rockets had its 14-game win streak snapped with a 122-116 loss to the L.A. Lakers last outing. Now Houston faces “the other L.A. team,” the Clippers as 12.5-point favorites in the first of an ESPN double header Friday night at 7 PM (Central Time). The over/under is set at 221 points according to NBA oddsmakers at bookmaker 5dimes.
HOU
The Houston Rockets have basically went from very good to flat out deadly with the addition of a healthy Chris Paul, who has lost just a game as a Houston Rocket. Paul is averaging 17.1 points and 9.0 assists per game while posting the second-highest PER of any Rocket at 261. James Harden has been sensational, recording what could and should be an MVP campaign. Beard tallies 31.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 9.0 assists pre game with a PER nearly double the league average at 30.6. Supplementing the antics of Paul and Harden has been 2-guard Eric Gordon, who is averaging 19.2 points per game while shooting 34.2 percent from three on 9.4 attempts per game.
Houston shoots 37 percent from three-point range as a team and averages 16 made threes per game. The Rockets average 115.3 points per game which ranks No. 2 in the NBA. Meanwhile, due to Clint Capela anchoring a strong defense, the Rockets surrender just 104 points per game and have the league’s second-best point differential at +10.7.
Many are now wondering if Houston might not have enough firepower —and defense— to hand the Golden State Warriors a loss in a seven-game series.
The addition of Paul seems to only have made the Rockets a tougher team on both ends of the court, and if Mike D’Antoni can keep his team defending at the level at which it is, a title certainly has to be in consideration. Houston still leads Golden State by 1.5 games in the standings, and the Rockets are 12-1 on the road this season (while the Warriors have lost three already away from home). There are just so many factors that lend us to calling the Rockets true contenders, and not “pretenders” as many have called just about any team coached by D’Antoni.
LAC
The Clippers (12-18) are trying to avoid a freefall without Griffin. Having already lost star point guard Chris Paul over the offseason, Los Angeles more or less handed the reigns of the team off to Griffin, who led it in assists at 5.1 per game prior to suffering the leg injury. Griffin is still out up to two months with what is being termed a sprained MCL, and the Clippers really have no offensive creators to step up in his stead.
To be sure, Austin Rivers and Lou Williams are both good bucket-getters, but neither offers much along the way of getting teammates involved, and Patrick Beverley is not known for that a lot either, as the team’s floor general. Really, the point-forward experiment with Griffin was all the Clippers had to muster a chance against more talented teams in the West, and for all that Danilo Gallinari spoke of the team having the league’s best frontcourt, it is almost devoid of playmakers to get those big men baskets.
Center DeAndre Jordan has suffered sans Paul, and Gallinari is finding it more difficult to get offense as a Clipper than he did during his tenure in Denver either. Between the two, they combine to average just 24.5 points per game, which makes Griffin’s 23.6 per game still not enough. The Clippers put up 103.5 points per game as a team, which is respectable in today’s NBA, but the team is being obliterated defensively and surrendering 105.6 points per game.
Even with a premier rim protector like Jordan and a disruptor in the backcourt like Beverley, the Clippers have not found a way to form a coherent team defense, with missing rotations and lazy swings accounting for teams continually hurting L.A. from the perimeter.
The Clippers may trail No. 8 New Orleans by just 2.5 games at this juncture, but all of the teams ahead of Los Angeles (perhaps save cross-town rival Lakers) are better teams on the defensive end. Between not having a real formula for offensive success, but just a glut of talent, and the team’s glaring defensive inadequacies, it is difficult to envision the Clippers sneaking into the postseason.
Subtract Paul and head to the lottery?
That actually sounds like just what a purist would expect, and only Griffin’s own fans expected him to be able to carry the offensive load for an NBA team for a full season without serious injuries. He is an injury prone star, and the Clippers are now a strange collection of talents without his game-changing abilities on the court. It is not difficult to see why the team is six games below .500 with those woes clearly laid out before the reader.
