{"id":13096,"date":"2011-02-04T17:33:39","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T22:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13096"},"modified":"2011-02-05T04:22:33","modified_gmt":"2011-02-05T09:22:33","slug":"the-blake-griffin-exhibition-continues-l-a-clippers-at-atlanta-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/the-blake-griffin-exhibition-continues-l-a-clippers-at-atlanta-hawks-13096\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blake Griffin Exhibition Continues: L.A. Clippers at Atlanta Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Clippers AT Atlanta Hawks
\nFeb 4, 2011 at 7:30 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Atlanta -7.5
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Atlanta -7.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 196
\nCurrent Line: 195
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Atl -365 \/ Lac +305
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Atl -380 \/ Lac +300<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Blake Griffin has shed his suit to play some amazing basketball this year and had 35 against Utah last matchup.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Clippers have been playing really well after their dreadful 5-19 start to the season, but it’s going to take all that plus more to beat Joe Johnson and the Hawks, who have won 13 of their last 15 at Philips Arena.\u00a0 Joe Johnson has been playing spectacular basketball, averaging 32.7 points per game and 57.7% shooting over his last three games, and he recently received his bid as an Eastern Conference all star reserve along with teammate Al Horford.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve been taking my time,\u201d Joe Johnson said. \u201cMy body is feeling pretty good now.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Atlanta sports a 16-7 home record, they are just 4-5 at home against the Western Conference this year, which would be a boon for the Clippers…if they weren’t a dreadful 3-15 on the road.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the game gets technical or fundamental or it gets hard, we suddenly with our youth, we gotta stay together more. We\u2019re not doing that,\u201d coach Vinny Del Negro said. \u201cThat\u2019s kinda what happens to us on the road. We kinda have these lulls and we let that affect more than it should.\u201d\u00a0 The Clippers will again be without star shooting guard Eric Gordon and Baron Davis just sustained a back injury as well, leaving him questionable for tonight.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 7 of the Clippers’ last 9 games and they are 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 7 of the Clippers’ last 8 road games and the Clips are 3-19 SU in their last 22 road games.\u00a0 They are 0-4-1 ATS in their last 5 road games and 2-4 ATS in their last 6 games against the Atlanta Hawks.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER In 5 of the last 6 meetings against the Hawks on the road and the Clippers are 1-5 SU in their last 6 against Atlanta.\u00a0 The total has also gone OVER IN 6 of the 7 last Clipper road games against the Hawks and the Clips are 4-11 SU in their last 15 road games against Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER In 4 of Atlanta’s last 5 games and they are 10-4 SU in their last 14 games.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 8 of Atlanta’s last 11 home games and they are 13-2 SU in their last 15 games at home.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER In 5 of Atlanta’s last 6 games against the Clippers and Atlanta is 5-1 SU in their last 6 against the Clippers.<\/p>\n

Key Matchups:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Randy Foye vs. Joe Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Admittedly this is more about Johnson than Foye, but Foye has played respectable basketball starting in the place of the injured Eric Gordon.\u00a0 In his 6 starts he is averaging 16.7 points per game and displaying what made him a 7th overall pick in 2006, as he has bounced around the league a little and still has yet to establish himself.\u00a0 This Eric Gordon injury may do just that.\u00a0 Joe Johnson has been playing out of this world though, and Foye will have to do his best to stick with the taller Johnson.\u00a0 Joe Johnson’s size and strength will make him a tough cover for the 6’4″ 213 Foye, but he’s a solid defender and will no doubt make JJ work for his buckets.<\/p>\n

Blake Griffin vs Al Horford<\/strong><\/p>\n

Griffin made the all star team in his rookie season and he been in the East he might have taken Horford’s spot.\u00a0 Griffin is averaging 23 points per game and 12.7 rebounds per game as well compared to Horford’s 16.1 points per game and 9.9 rebounds.\u00a0 Griffin has emerged as one of the most exciting dunkers in the league and is giving people a reason to tune into Clippers games, such as the one Wednesday on NBA TV against the Bulls.\u00a0 The Clippers lost the game but Griffin showcased himself scoring 32 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.\u00a0 He also, however, showcased just how bad he is at the line, shooting 4 of 13 from the stripe.\u00a0 He’ll have plenty of time to work on that, but it has been a trend that poor free throw shooters stay poor.\u00a0 He’ll hope to follow in the footsteps of Karl Malone rather than Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s game could be a good one, but only if the Clippers can show some reliency on the road and keep their composure throughout the entire game.\u00a0 They are still a young team led by a rookie and that can cause problems for teams on the road.<\/p>\n

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Los Angeles Clippers AT Atlanta Hawks Feb 4, 2011 at 7:30 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Atlanta -7.5 Current Line:\u00a0 Atlanta -7.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 196 Current Line: 195 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Atl -365 \/ Lac +305 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Atl -380 \/ Lac +300 The Clippers have been playing really well after their dreadful 5-19 start to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":7967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[3277,834,749,2933,2897,1371,4454],"class_list":["post-13096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-al-horford","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-blake-griffin","tag-eric-gordon","tag-joe-johnson","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-randy-foye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13096","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=13096"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13120,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13096\/revisions\/13120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}