Golden State vs L.A. Online Betting Odds
The Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors face off in the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs. The series tips off on Saturday afternoon. These teams met four times during the regular season, with the home side taking each contest, meaning the Clippers’ home court advantage could play a major factor.[ad-4468020]
Odds
Series: Clippers -375, Warriors +315
Conference: Clippers +500, Warriors +1400
NBA Title: Clippers +900, Warriors +2800
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The Clippers bring the Association’s best offense to the court in this one, while the Warriors are statistically one of the Western Conference’s best defenses. That Warrior defense could take a hit, though, with the status of center Andrew Bogut up in the air entering Game 1.
The Nuggets were the No. 6 seed a year ago and made some noise in the West, knocking off the Denver Nuggets, then giving the San Antonio Spurs some trouble. This year, they’ll start with a tougher opponent in a Clippers team that brought in head coach Doc Rivers and his impressive postseason pedigree with the intention of improving upon their playoff successes.
Rivers is the main difference on a Clippers team that remains largely unchanged from the group that was knocked out of the playoffs in the opening round a year ago, that one at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies. Blake Griffin dealt with an ankle injury for much of that series, though he has a clean bill of health for this one, and has been tearing up the Association for months.
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Griffin averaged a career high in points this season, averaging 24.1 per game. He really picked things up in the second half of the season, and it’s no coincidence that he really took off when Chris Paul returned from an injury of his own.
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These two teams simply do not like each other, with many Warriors really channeling their aggressions towards Blake Griffin. They’ll really focus their attention on them, and the Clippers need to hope that Griffin does a better job of handling it than he did of handling Zach Randolph a year ago.
Granted, he was injured then, but Griffin seemed to have a really tough time going to the tough spots with Randolph, allowing the Grizzlies’ big power forward to dictate play. Randolph was also not shy about leaning on Griffin, who noticeably wore down as the series went on.
Griffin has thus far brushed off the Warriors’ comments, and the Clippers are surely hoping he does his talking on the court.
NBA Playoff Betting Prediction
There were points in each of the four meetings between these teams. In fact, the winning side averaged 113.3 points in their four meetings this season, to the losing side’s 102.0. That, of course, is with the home side winning each game. With that said, the over/under went just 2-2.
It’s noteworthy that the Clippers covered the spread in three of those four games, including home covers on spreads of six, and six and a half points. In Game 1 of this series, Los Angeles will be giving away seven points, with the total set at 211, both numbers right in line with what we’ve seen from the teams in the regular season, meaning the under may be the play.
Series prediction: Clippers in 7
