{"id":12796,"date":"2011-01-26T16:44:14","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T21:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12796"},"modified":"2011-01-26T16:44:14","modified_gmt":"2011-01-26T21:44:14","slug":"phoenix-fun-charlotte-bobcats-at-phoenix-suns-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/phoenix-fun-charlotte-bobcats-at-phoenix-suns-betting-preview-12796\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix Fun: Charlotte Bobcats at Phoenix Suns Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlotte Bobcats AT Phoenix Suns
\nJan 26, 2011 at 9 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Phoenix -5.5
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Phoenix -7
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 201
\nCurrent Total: 199.5
\nOpening Moneyline: Phx -260 \/ Cha +220
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Phx -275 \/ Cha +225<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Steve Nash is still not slowing down<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Phoenix did not have a successful Eastern Conference road trip.\u00a0 They dropped the last two games because of poor execution and poor shooting, but Phoenix forward Jared Dudley believes a trip back to the friendly confines of the US Airways Center could solve those problems.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to go home on this plane and get some rest and get ready to go,\u201d Dudley said.\u00a0 Teams often need rest following long road trips, so the hope for Phoenix fans and players is that the rest gives them the fresh legs needed to play their typical game, running and gunning for 48 minutes.<\/p>\n

The Bobcats will try to counteract that running game with a slow down grind it out of style of their own, though they have gotten away from that more since Paul Silas took over.\u00a0 Players cited a lack of fun as a reason for playing poorly under the outdated coaching methods of Larry Brown.\u00a0 They are 9-6 since Silas took over (.600) and were 9-18 (.333) before the coaching change.\u00a0 Another part of the reason has been the play of Kwame Brown.\u00a0 Jordan drafted the youngster in Washington and now as owner of the Bobcats, he is reaping the benefit 10 years later.\u00a0 Last night against the Kings, Brown went for 13 points and 18 boards and has had a double double in 3 of the last 6 Bobcat games.\u00a0 If he can continue to anchor the center position, the Bobcats will at last have found an answer to a position that has been manned by committee for the past few seasons.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Charlotte’s last 6 games and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of their last 7 on the road.\u00a0 They are 3-11 SU in their last 14 on the road and the total has gone OVER In 9 of their last 13 against the Suns.\u00a0 Charlotte is 4-9 SU in their last 13 against Phoenix and 4-1 SU in their last 5 against the Suns.\u00a0 They are 1-5 SU in their last 6 road games against Phoenix and the total has gone OVER in 5 of those 6 games.<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Phoenix’s last 5 games and Phoenix is 5-2 SU in their last 7 games.\u00a0 They are 4-2 SU in their last 6 at home and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 6 at home, as well.\u00a0 Phoenix is 1-4 SU in their last 5 against the Bobcats.\u00a0 Phoenix is 1-4-1 ATS in their last 6 against Charlotte and the total has gone OVER in 9 of the last 13 games against the Bobcats.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 5 of the last 6 home games against Charlotte and Phoenix is 2-3-1 ATS in their last 6 home games against the Bobcats.
\n
\nKey Matchups:<\/p>\n

D.J. Augustin vs Steve Nash<\/strong><\/p>\n

Augustin was left to be the starter after Raymond Felton bolted for the Knicks as a free agent.\u00a0 Many questioned whether Augustin was starter material, but since Silas has came in as coach he has silenced many of those doubters by averaging better than 19 points per game.\u00a0 He’s still not quite the ball distributor that Felton was, but perhaps that will come in time.\u00a0 Nash, as most know, is one of the best point guards ever to play the game, and Augustin will have his hands full.\u00a0 He has the speed to stay with Nash, but it isn’t necessarily speed that does the trick against Steve Nash.\u00a0 It depends more upon not falling for his fakes and hesitation dribbles — and all point guards do.\u00a0 Augustin’s best defense may be his offense, as if he can engage Nash on that end of the court by looking to make a lot of plays rather than deferring to Stephen Jackson, he could at least make Nash work on both ends of the court.<\/p>\n

Stephen Jackson vs. Vince Carter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vince Carter has not improved since coming to Phoenix.\u00a0 In fact, he’s gotten even worse.\u00a0 He’s coming off a two point performance in which he shot 1 of 6 from the floor and he hasn’t looked aggressive enough thus far in a Suns uniform.\u00a0 He’s clearly a shadow of the player he once was, and he’s not going to have it easy against Stephen Jackson.\u00a0 Jackson is a big shooting guard (6’8″) whose length and effort will frustrate Carter.\u00a0 For Carter to have a good night he’s going to have to be aggressive and not settle for fade away jumpers as he has in recent times.\u00a0 Jackson will make him work and I think Jackson will outscore and out play Carter tonight, which could lead to a Bobcats victory, if Augustin can keep Nash from having a big scoring night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlotte Bobcats AT Phoenix Suns Jan 26, 2011 at 9 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Phoenix -5.5 Current Line:\u00a0 Phoenix -7 Opening Total:\u00a0 201 Current Total: 199.5 Opening Moneyline: Phx -260 \/ Cha +220 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Phx -275 \/ Cha +225 Phoenix did not have a successful Eastern Conference road trip.\u00a0 They dropped the last two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[87,3966,577,1199,576,1482],"class_list":["post-12796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-charlotte-bobcats","tag-d-j-augustin","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-stephen-jackson","tag-steve-nash","tag-vince-carter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12798,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12796\/revisions\/12798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}