{"id":13284,"date":"2011-02-10T16:43:48","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T21:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13284"},"modified":"2011-02-10T16:43:48","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T21:43:48","slug":"western-conference-shootout-betting-predictions-of-golden-state-warriors-at-phoenix-suns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/western-conference-shootout-betting-predictions-of-golden-state-warriors-at-phoenix-suns-13284\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Conference Shootout: Betting Predictions of Golden State Warriors at Phoenix Suns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Golden State Warriors AT Phoenix Suns
\nFeb 10, 2011 at 9 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Phx -5.5
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Phx -6.5
\nOpening Total: 187.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 187
\nOpening Moneyline: Phx -265 \/ GS +225
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Phx -280 \/ GS +230<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Curry will get to test his skills against one of the league's best tonight in Nash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The crawl back to .500 has been arduous for the Phoenix Suns, but they are almost there and will have a chance to balance out their record tonight against a Golden State team that is only 6-17 on the road.\u00a0 Golden State has won 5 of their last 10, compared to Phoenix’s 6 of their last 10, so it’s easy to see why the line is set relatively close for this one.\u00a0 Both teams are quite mediocre and unlikely to appear in the Playoffs this year.\u00a0 Phoenix has won 10 straight against Golden State, however, so they can rest their hat on that at least.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been a very fun year in large part, but it\u2019s been more fun lately,\u201d Steve Nash commented, \u201cWe just have to keep working every day, we have to continue to improve and we also have to get a little bit tougher.”<\/p>\n

No doubt acquiring center Marcin Gortat from Orlando made the Suns tougher.\u00a0 Gortat has posted a double double in 6 of the Suns’ last 9 games and has all but displaced Robin Lopez as starter.\u00a0 Gortat has shown all the promise that led the Suns to give up Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu, and promising youngster Earl Clark.\u00a0 They also acquired Vince Carter and Mikael Pietrus, but Carter is just an expiring contract and Pietrus is barely playing; the real gem in the deal was the 7’0″ Polish center.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Golden State is 4-1 SU in their last 5 games and the total has gone UNDER in 15 of their last 23 on the road.\u00a0 Golden State is 1-4 SU in their last 5 on the road and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of the last 7 games against Phoenix.\u00a0 Golden State is 1-8 SU in their last 9 against Phoenix and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of the last 5 road games against the Suns.\u00a0 Golden State is 0-5 SU in their last 5 against Phoenix on the road and they are 2-5 ATS in their last 7 road games there.<\/p>\n

Phoenix is 4-1 SU in their last 5 games and the total has gone UNDER in 7 of Phoenix’s last 10 games.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 5 of their last 7 home games and they are 6-2 SU in their last 8 at home.\u00a0 Phoenix is 8-1 SU in their last 9 against Golden State and the total has gone UNDER in 5 of the last 7 games against the Warriors.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 5 home games against Golden State and they are 5-0 SU in their last 5 at home against the Warriors, as well.
\n
\nKey Matchups:<\/p>\n

Dorell Wright vs. Grant Hill<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wright floundered in obscurity for his first six seasons in the league, battling injuries and inconsistent playing time before bolting for Golden State this offseason in a signing that barely anyone took notice of.\u00a0 Now they are.\u00a0 Wright is in this year’s three point competition and has emerged as a solid offensive threat for the Warriors, averaging 16.8 points per game, 5.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.5 steals in a whopping 39 minutes of action per night.\u00a0 Grant Hill is still widely regarded as a good wing defender though, so Wright will still have his work cut out for him.\u00a0 He’s only an inch taller than Hill, but his lanky frame will enable him to get good looks from behind the arc, where he shoots 40.8%, hitting an average of 2.5 threes per game.\u00a0 Hill will have to engage himself offensively to make Wright work on that end of the court, because if Hill is too passive Wright will have that much more energy to expend on his aresenal of offensive moves.<\/p>\n

Stephen Curry vs. Steve Nash<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nash just turned 37 (!) three days ago, but he is timeless.\u00a0 For all we hear that he is slowing down, he continues to log heavy minutes (33 a night) and put up gaudy stats (16.7 ppg, 11.1 apg, 3.7 rpg, on 52% FG, 40% three).\u00a0 Curry will give Nash all he can handle defensively, though.\u00a0 Curry is quick and accurate from deep, a combination that gives the best of defenders fits, never mind the defensively challenged Nash.\u00a0 Expect both Curry and Nash to post hefty numbers tonight, but Nash will probably still edge out Curry in terms of production.\u00a0 Nash accounts for 37% of Phoenix’s offense (that is he either assists or scores the bucket) and his heavy usage leads to great stats on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

The point guard battle and the small forward battle will go a long way towards determining the outcome of tonight’s game.\u00a0 If Wright can get going against Hill and Curry burns Nash, the Warriors could easily steal this game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Golden State Warriors AT Phoenix Suns Feb 10, 2011 at 9 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Phx -5.5 Current Line:\u00a0 Phx -6.5 Opening Total: 187.5 Current Total:\u00a0 187 Opening Moneyline: Phx -265 \/ GS +225 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Phx -280 \/ GS +230 The crawl back to .500 has been arduous for the Phoenix Suns, but they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[4478,1011,3650,1002,577,14,576],"class_list":["post-13284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-dorell-wright","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-grant-hill","tag-marcin-gortat","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-stephen-curry","tag-steve-nash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13284","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=13284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13285,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13284\/revisions\/13285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}