Best of the West for Sunday
The NBA is offering up a five-game slate for bettors today, with three games involving some of the best teams in the ultra-powerful Western Conference, including the Thunder, the Grizzlies and the Denver Nuggets. Here is a look at each of the three games we have in the West today and which teams we should like on the lines.
Oklahoma City Thunder -7 at Toronto Raptors +7.5
The Thunder (25-7) have remained consistent all season long and currently reside at the top of the Western Conference standings along with the Los Angeles Clippers. Today they will look to continue their early season domination against a team that is starting to heat up in the Toronto Raptors (12-21).
After a horrendous start, the Raptors have began to turn things around, winning eight of their last 10 games. They are also 8-6 at home this year, so they should give the Thunder a good fight today.
The Thunder have played the fewest road games of any NBA team so far this season (12, 8-4), and have played considerably worse away from OKC. That’s why I like the Raptors to at least cover +7.5 today, but don’t necessarily expect an upset win from Toronto today.
Memphis Grizzlies -4.5 at Phoenix Suns +4.5
The Grizzlies (20-10) have cooled off a bit lately, but they’ll have a chance to get back on track against the struggling Suns (12-22) today.
Memphis is another team that hasn’t played many road games (13) and the ones that they have played, they’ve found some trouble (7-6). Meanwhile, the Suns have enjoyed almost all of their success at home (10-8).
The Grizzlies bring in one of the league’s best defenses, but score an average of fewer than 95 points per game. The Suns are 7-2 this season when holding teams under 90 and at home they may be able to do that today against Memphis.
I like Phoenix to pull off an upset win today at home and cover +4.5.
Denver Nuggets +3.5 at Los Angeles Lakers -3.5
The scuffling Lakers (15-17) will continue to try to find their groove at home today as they host the Nuggets (19-16); the team credited with putting a stop to the other Los Angeles team’s major winning streak last week.
The Nuggets should have success against one of the worst defenses in the league and a team that is still trying to figure out how to play together. However, Denver has struggled on the road (8-14) and the Lakers have enjoyed slightly more success at home (10-7).
With the Lakers still unproven, I like the Nuggets to cover +3.5 and win outright today.
