The Spurs are in the midst of a massive SU and ATS slump. They welcome a Clippers team on Friday that has their stars healthy and is playing great ball. With a small spread, playing the favored Clippers seems like the smart play.
- Date/Time: November 29, 8:30 p.m. ET
- Arena: AT&T Center
- TV Coverage: Fox Sports Prime Ticket, Fox Sports Southwest - San Antonio
- Sportsbook Odds: Clippers -5 | O/U 226
- Clippers vs Spurs Matchup Report
Sportsbook Odds Analysis
The Clippers are much deeper, they’re healthy and they’re more talented than San Antonio, but due to their early-season struggles on the road, Los Angeles only opened as five-point road favorites. With both teams possessing solid offenses, the total opened at a modest 226 points.
Los Angeles News & Notes
The NBA has finally gotten a good look at what the Clippers look like with a healthy Paul George and a healthy Kawhi Leonard… and the rest of the league has reason to be scared.
Los Angeles is 4-0 with Leonard and George both in the lineup, and they’ve won seven straight overall. While their offense, which is currently seventh in the league, can score in a variety of ways… their defense is what should give opposing coaches nightmares.
They possess a number of talented, athletic defenders that can guard a number of positions. Just look at Wednesday’s win over Dallas, when Mavericks’ superstar Luka Doncic was guarded by Leonard, George, Moe Harkless, Rodney McGruber and Pat Beverley at various points throughout the game… and he was forced into his worst game of the season.
The Clippers allow the third-lowest opponent field goal percentage in the league, by way of their versatility, and they’re only going to further improve their chemistry. That will make for an interesting test against the Spurs, who are fifth in the NBA in shooting percentage.
San Antonio News & Notes
For the first time in what seems like, ever, the Spurs are looking like a lottery team, as opposed to their usual playoff-bound club.
They’ve lost 12 of their past 14 games, their most recent a 113-101 defeat at the hands of Minnesota. The loss was their fifth straight at home, with their last win at home court coming on November 7.
Their Achilles’ heel this year, again unusual for the Spurs, are their struggles on defense: they allow 115.2 points per game, seventh-worst in the league, and yield the second-highest three-pointer percentage against in the league.
San Antonio’s defensive issues will not get any easier against a Clippers team that is clicking on both sides of the ball right now.
Betting Pick: CLIPPERS -5
The Spurs has virtually no depth after DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge, while the Clippers may be the deepest team in the league. I’ll go with the Clippers.
- San Antonio is 2-8 ATS in its last 10 games.
- The UNDER has hit in 4 of the Spurs' last 5 games.
- The Clippers are 7-0 SU in their last 7 games.
