NBA Game Previews for March 17, 2017 (3 more games)
Houston Rockets (47-21) at New Orleans Pelicans (27-41), 8 p.m. EST
Line: Rockets -4.5. Total 227.5.
Remember all the hub-bub just after the NBA All-Star game in New Orleans on February 19 when the trade for DeMarcus Cousins from the Sacramento Kings to the New Orleans Pelicans was announced?
Many talking heads on your TV sets were telling you how this trade guaranteed a playoff spot for the Pelicans and a potential deep run into the playoffs.
Uh, no.
The Pelicans are 4-7 since the trade and now 6 games out of the playoffs.
And I love Cousins as a player. This is not his fault. It will generally take at least 15 games for a star player to mesh into a team that already has another star player.
Remember LeBron James and Chris Bosh going to the Heat in 2010-11 to join Dwayne Wade? The Heat started 9-8 that season and those guys had an entire training camp and preseason to prepare.
Cousins and his Pelicans’ teammates had 3 off-days and a few practices to try and make this work more than halfway through the season.
With all that said, the Pelicans are showing some signs of life on offense. Seven of their first 8 games with Cousins on the roster went under. However, two of their last three have now gone over. Cousins is questionable for this game, but even if he does not play, I would not be afraid to take it over.
The first two meetings between these two teams (one with Cousins and one without him) just missed going over. And if you like revenge spots, the Pelicans have one here.
New Orleans played their first game with Cousins after the All-Star break on February 23rd at home and lost by 30 to the Rockets. Now three weeks later the Pelicans face the Rockets at home again at the Smoothie King Center.
Orlando Magic (24-45) at Phoenix Suns (22-46), 10 p.m. EST
Line: Suns -3. Total 220.
From a handicapping perspective, this is a stay-away game unless there is a sensational situational spot that favors one team or the other. It is a stay-away game because you have two bad teams going nowhere and playing out the string. Very hard to find a motivational spot here.
I suppose you could say the Magic have a bounce-back spot after getting their butts kicked at Golden State Thursday by 30 points.
But bounce-back spots work much better when good teams are in that spot, not bad teams. Bad teams can find a way to get hammered two games in a row, no problem, especially this time of year when there is very little to play for other than personal stats.
The Suns are getting a look at their younger players as veterans Brandon Knight and Eric Bledsoe are out for the season due to injury and Leandro Barbosa and Tyson Chandler are questionable to play Friday.
Those young guns include Devin Booker (guard, Kentucky, 2nd year), Tyler Ullis (guard, Kentucky, rookie), Marquese Chriss (forward, Washington, rookie), Alan Williams (forward, UC Santa Barbara, 2nd year) and Alex Len (center, Maryland, 4th year).
Milwaukee Bucks (33-34) at Los Angeles Lakers (20-48), 10:30 p.m. EST
Line: Bucks -7. Total 213.
The Lakers have mailed in the season.
And why not?
They need to keep losing games to have a chance to keep their top 3 pick in the lottery for the 2017-18 season. Otherwise they would lose that pick to the Sixers.
So let the tanking begin.
The Lakers are coming off a 39-point loss at Houston on Wednesday and normally I would be all over the Lakers in this “bounce-back” situational spot. But the Lakers also lost at Houston by 39 points on December 7 and failed to cover the spread their next game. They lost by 33 points at Toronto on December 2 and then did not cover the spread the next night at Memphis. They lost by 40 points at San Antonio on January 12 and did not cover the spread their next game.
The list goes on.
There is no “bounce-back” with this Lakers’ squad this season.
So even though Milwaukee is 26th in the league ATS (Against The Spread) and a team I would never take as a 7-point favorite on the road against anyone, I would certainly take the Bucks in this spot before I took the Lakers. And oh by the way, Los Angeles is 28th in the league ATS.
So I am in kind of a quandary on who to pick vs. the spread in this game.
But not to worry because the over here looks more appealing to me anyway.
The Lakers have gone over 5 straight games as their defense has been non-existent during this stretch, allowing 123.6 points per game. The last time these two teams played at Milwaukee, there were 236 points scored. Milwaukee has had a lot of unders recently and I think that is about to flip the other way.
