Late season NBA Eastern Conference matchup where one team has a lot to play for and the other is playing out the string. The Charlotte Hornets are in 10th place in the East and while not technically eliminated yet they have zero margin for error. They’re 2 games out of the final playoff spot in the East held by…the Detroit Pistons. There are five teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff table playing for three postseason spots separated by 2.5 games. Right now, Brooklyn and Orlando are in 6th and 7th with 8th place Detroit 1\/2 game back. The Miami Heat are in 9th one game behind Detroit and 1 game ahead of Charlotte. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As improbable as it sounds, the Hornets could still sneak in. With the exception of the Orlando Magic (won 8 of L10) none of the five teams vying for the three playoff spots are in exceptional form. The Hornets have won 2 straight, have covered 3 straight and 7 of 9 and won 6 of their last 10 SU. The Miami Heat are 5-5 L10 and have dropped 3 straight. Detroit has lost 3 straight and 7 of 10. Simply put, this is a game that Detroit has to have if they want any chance of playing in the postseason. All three games remaining on their schedule (including this one) are winnable–they host Memphis on Tuesday and conclude the regular season at Madison Square Garden against the lowly New York Knicks. Charlotte’s road is a bit tougher–or maybe not. After this game, the Hornets play at Cleveland (Cavs lost 8 straight) and at Orlando. Charlotte could catch a break if the Magic have already locked up a postseason spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hornets are still alive but they’re playing defense like a team that has already been eliminated. Overall this season, they’re #17 in team defense (112.2 PPG) but in their last 10 games have allowed an average of 116.8 points against. Detroit has been solid on defense this season–they currently check in with the #7 team defense in the NBA allowing 107.7 PPG which puts them just ahead of Boston, Toronto and Milwaukee. Pistons went on an absolutely monstrous pointspread run in the month of March going 10-6 SU\/13-3 ATS. They’ve since dropped 3 straight SU\/ATS losing a home\/home series against Indiana and at Oklahoma City on Friday night. They’ve been very strong at home lately–the home loss to Indiana last Wednesday was the first time they failed to get the money at home in 12 games for a tidy 11-1 ATS run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hornets have dominated head to head play of late and can sweep the series with the win here. Overall, Charlotte is 5-0 SU\/4-1 ATS in their last 5 against Detroit. This record notwithstanding, we sure don’t see any type of matchup edge for the Hornets. They’re a team that we’ve avoiding using away from the Queen City all year long–they’re 12-27 SU\/17-22 ATS on the road. They also haven’t dealt with success well going 14-22 SU\/16-20 ATS after a SU win. The recent struggles of Detroit and the recent success of Indiana gives us a more reasonable NBA pointspread<\/a> for this game and like the Pistons’ urgency and superior defense to get the job done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BET DETROIT PISTONS -6.5 OVER CHARLOTTE HORNETS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Late season NBA Eastern Conference matchup where one team has a lot to play for and the other is playing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nba"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t