A quick two-game road trip resulted in losses for the Oklahoma City Thunder and they’ll return home to host the Los Angeles Clippers tonight. The Thunder are 8-2 SU in their last 10 games at home and are 4-1 SU and ATS in their last five games vs the Clip-Show. Los Angeles, on the other hand, is starting to come back to Earth after a hot start and have dropped five of their last seven games to fall to 17-11 SU in 28 games this season.
The Thunder opened as 7.5-point favorites (since moved to 6) with a total of 229.5 (since moved to 226.5).
- The Clippers have failed to top 100 points in four of their last five games.
- The Thunder are 10-3 SU and 8-5 ATS in 13 home games this season.
- The OVER has hit in 5 of the last 6 games in this matchup.
Clippers vs Thunder Game Center
Thunder Looking Forward to Getting back to Chesapeake Energy Arena
After dropping two road games to the Nuggets and Pelicans, the Thunder still remain third in the Western Conference but the difference between third and ninth is only 2.5 games. So, they can’t afford to let the losses pile up with how stacked the West is this year.
Oklahoma City has been a pretty decent bet when playing at home at 10-3 SU and 8-5 ATS in 13 games and although the Thunder are on the second game of a back-to-back, they’ve fared well when put in that spot. The Thunder are 2-1 SU and ATS in three games on the back half of games on consecutive nights with wins over the Rockets and Wizards and the loss to the Nuggets.
Russell Westbrook is still a beast but his scoring has taken a dip in December as it is down to 18 points per game in six contests which means Paul George and Dennis Schroder will need to be counted on to pick up the scoring slack if Westbrook has an off night. George and Schroder are combining to average 40.1 points per game with PG-13 playing an all-star level and Schroder second on the team with 4.8 assists per game.
I like the Thunder to win and cover in this game mainly due to the history of this matchup (5-0 ATS in last five games when hosting the Clippers) and the fact that they’re 8-2 ATS in their last 10 home games. Finally, they’ve covered in four of their last six games at home when favored by six points or more.
Clippers Scoring Has Taken a Nosedive
“Sweet” Lou Williams may have never made an all-star team in his career but the Clippers are going to miss his shooting touch while he recovers from a hamstring injury. Williams is third on the team in scoring (17.2 points per game) and his absence has put more pressure on Tobias Harris and Danilo Gallinari to pick up the slack.
Even when Lou was in the lineup, Los Angeles has found it difficult to buy a bucket as its failed to top 100 points in four of their last five games with defenses locking in on Harris to make other players in the backcourt become shooters like Patrick Beverley and Avery Bradley who both shoot 30 percent or less from deep. Yuck!
I think the Clippers are in trouble tonight as I can’t see them going into OKC and dominating now that teams have started to figure them out and Wiliams being out of the lineup. They’ve gone 0-5 ATS in their last five games in Oklahoma City, 0-5 ATS in their last five games overall and 1-4 ATS in their last five games on the road. TAKE THAT FOR DATA!
Is another OVER in Store for this Matchup?
The total opened at 226.5 and based on recent history between these two franchises, another OVER could be in the cards. The OVER has hit in five of the last six games in this matchup with an average combined score of 227.8. I think this line may be too high to convincingly take the OVER as the Clippers have struggled to score and OKC is one of the better teams defensively in the league so proceed with caution.
My Pick Is…
To take the Thunder to cover the spread. The Clippers look to be on the downswing and the Thunder play much better at home than they do on the road. OKC stomped this team with Lou Williams in the lineup on October 30th (128-110) and I think this will be a repeat performance.
