Since the start of February, the Los Angeles Clippers have been underdogs just three times in 11 games.
The teams favored to win over them? The Milwaukee Bucks twice and the Denver Nuggets.
In other words, the only teams that were expected to beat LA over the last month were the teams currently in first place in their respective conferences. The Clippers should have beaten everyone else — according to sportsbooks.
Instead, they’ve gone 4-7 in that span, including 2-7 in their last nine and winless in their last four games. Their record against the spread is identical.
The Clippers still have the consensus fifth-best title odds across popular sportsbooks, but after another disappointing loss Thursday — blowing an 11-point halftime lead over the shorthanded Warriors — why should anyone feel good about betting on them?
LA’s current four-game losing streak outright and ATS started a week ago against the Sacramento Kings, who scored the third-most points ever by an NBA team in a double-overtime win. That’s who the Clippers play again Friday, and I would confidently place my money on the other side.
LA isn’t favored for once, likely because it’s the second game of a back-to-back and Kawhi Leonard is expected to sit. But when all things were even, the Clippers were favored by 6.5 points before losing the last meeting.
That was easy money for Kings bettors.
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If we learned anything from that game, it’s that LA should never be favored by so much against a team that’s actually good, and maybe it’s time people stop expecting them to win based on talent alone.
The Clippers have a bottom-10 record ATS in the entire NBA.
Kawhi Leonard says he will not play tomorrow at Sacramento.
— Law Murray 🥁 (@LawMurrayTheNU) March 3, 2023
Their losing streak also coincides with Russell Westbrook’s debut. Though LA’s problems run deeper than one player, he’s clearly dealing with mental hurdles preventing him from being a positive factor.
More than that, this team just doesn’t have one thing we can point to that it’s great at — not offensively, not defensively, not anything. We just expect the Clippers to be good because, hey, they have Leonard and Paul George.
So far, that’s gotten them a 33-32 record and seventh place in the Western Conference. Health has been an issue over the years, but both stars have been present for every game of this recent streak. At this late stage of the season, maybe it’s time we accept that they might just be pretenders.
