NBA Sports Betting - Thursday's Picks

Los Angeles Clippers (8-26) @ San Antonio Spurs (23-11)

The Los Angeles Clippers are so short-handed nowadays that sports betting handicappers might mix them up with an NBA D-League team.

The Clippers are without starting point guard Baron Davis, starting power forward Zach Randolph and starting center Chris Kaman. Most teams wouldn’t be able to handle the loss of three All-Star caliber players and the Clippers are proving to be in that category of ‘most teams’.

The Clip Show is just 8-26 on the season and has been completely overmatched without three of their regulars. They have lost eight straight games, which is a discouraging stretch considering they had seemingly started to find their feet with wins in four of five games right before that.

The good news is that Los Angeles’ other basketball team has been more competitive lately. They rallied from a double-digit deficit in Phoenix before losing 106-98 on last Friday, then they lost 88-87 to the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, then blew a four-point lead with under two minutes to go in Dallas on Tuesday.

They’ll be in tough on Thursday as the San Antonio Spurs have won 14 of their last 17 games and won’t take the Clippers lightly. Look for the Spurs defense to clamp down on stud rookie Eric Gordon, who has been the main source of the Clippers points with Davis out.

Pick: San Antonio -13

New York Knicks (13-20) @ Dallas Mavericks (21-13)

The Dallas Mavericks may have 21 wins on the year and they are 15-5 against teams with a losing record, but the Mavericks are not to be trusted against big spreads.

The Mavs are just 4-13 against the spread at home and just 2-4 against the spread in their last six games.

The Mavericks have had a tough time covering big spreads at home against teams below .500. They were a 10.5 point favorite against the Clippers and failed to cover. As a 14-point favorite against the Bobcats, the Mavs won by just five. They won by just four as a 13-point favorite at home to Oklahoma City and won by just seven as a 13.5-point favorite at home against Minnesota.

The New York Knicks have adjusted to Mike D’Antoni’s system and performing much better than most people expected this year. Their high-scoring, high-flying attack has given a number of teams problems and if the Mavericks play the same way as they did against the Thunder, who also like to run and play up-tempo, the Mavs will have their hands full.

The Mavs have won 10 of the last 11 meetings in Dallas and 16 of the last 23 overall but the Knicks are more than capable of keeping this a close game.

Pick: New York Knicks +8