Clippers vs Warriors Odds, Picks, and Predictions Tonight: Offenses Stutter With Distractions Aplenty

Does anyone want to play for the Los Angeles Clippers or Golden State Warriors right now?

The Clippers sent two players home from this trip to the Bay Area, not that P.J. Tucker was playing at all or Bones Hyland was playing much. The adductor strain sidelining Kawhi Leonard tonight will be more of a worry, and the Warriors reportedly shopped some of their roster at last week’s trade deadline in an attempt to pull in LeBron James.

Presumably, any individual player in a Golden State uniform can understand the logic behind those conversations, but it still may rub Andrew Wiggins or Klay Thompson the wrong way in these final games before the All-Star Break.

Combine these intangibles with a shared recent trend and a clear angle arises in our free NBA picks and predictions as we preview the Clippers vs the Warriors on February 14, with tip set for 10:00 ET.

Clippers vs Warriors odds

Clippers vs Warriors predictions

This can be a tricky week in the NBA. The vast majority of the league is looking forward to a week off, be it spent decompressing at home or on a beach in the Caribbean. Human nature cannot help but ease into that week ahead of time. Don’t judge the NBA players. You do it, too. How much work did you get down the week before Christmas? That’s what we thought.

So all in all, we have two rosters with some degree of frustration percolating through them thanks to off-court personnel drama, all looking ahead to some time off.

And then there is the on-court thought process.

Both these teams have trended toward Unders of late. The Golden State Warriors have cashed the Under in seven of their last eight games, the one exception pushing in regulation before going Over in overtime. Those seven Unders fell short of their pregame totals by 10.6 points.

The Los Angeles Clippers have cashed the Under in eight of their last 10 games, those eight Unders falling short of their pregame totals by 10.4 points.

Those are both sustained stretches with sizable discrepancies compared to sportsbooks’ expectations. What changed? Two differing trends emerge for the two traditional Western Conference powers.

First of all, Golden State has found its defense. Before this stretch, the Warriors’ defensive rating sat at No. 24 in the league. During this stretch, it has trailed only the Timberwolves, the Golden State defense 11.2 points better per 100 possessions than it was for most of the season.

Not to give credit to one of the NBA’s biggest and most unnecessary drama creators, but it is probably not a coincidence that this Warriors’ defensive surge began a game after Draymond Green returned to a full workload following his latest suspension. A focused Green has always leveled up Golden State’s defense, and missing 16 games because he had become a violent distraction appears to have focused Green.

Secondly, Los Angeles has lost some of its offense. Before this stretch, the Clippers’ offensive rating sat at No. 5 in the league. During this stretch, it has fallen to No. 9, 0.8 points worse per 100 possessions than it was for most of the season.

The oddity has been that Los Angeles has sped up a touch of late, its pace jumping to No. 16 in the NBA in its last 10 games compared to being at No. 26 for much of the season. So the Clippers are getting more possessions while scoring fewer points in those possessions.

Combine the off-court malaise with Golden State’s defensive improvement and Los Angeles’s scattered offense and the reasons are too many not to take tonight’s Under in San Francisco.

My best bet: Under 237 (-105 at DraftKings)

Clippers vs Warriors same-game parlay

Under 237

Andrew Wiggins Under 12.5 points

Jonathan Kuminga Over 19.5 points

+550 at DraftKings

Call this the “LeBron Trade Offer Fallout” same-game parlay. Though today’s ESPN.com report did not detail Golden State’s package to pull in LeBron James, if the 20-time All-Star expressed an interest in a deal, it can be assumed Wiggins was a part of the intended offer.

His $28.2 million contract would have helped offset LeBron’s $47.6 million, and James would have cut too far into Wiggins’s role to try to hold onto the younger wing.

Wiggins once had a clear role in Golden State. Though he has played better the last few weeks, he is still a fickle personality that does not always engage. Former All-Stars should not score just two points in 19 minutes against the woeful Hawks’ defense, as Wiggins did on February 3.

He has fallen short of tonight’s points prop in 29 of 46 games this season, including 11 of his last 18 games.

And if Wiggins becomes passive or a liability in any regard, that will increase Kuminga’s role. The two learning to play together has been the greatest hurdle in the Warriors’ season, and it has been Kuminga playing best in the last month-plus. He has scored 20+ points in 10 of his last 14 games.

Even as Golden State has played better as a whole, Kuminga’s success has often come at Wiggins’s expense, and the off-court reports should emphasize that tonight.

Learn how to bet a same-game parlay with these helpful tips and strategies.

Clippers vs Warriors spread and Over/Under analysis

The Clippers opened as 2-point favorites on Tuesday evening before the news of Leonard’s absence became public, at which point this number jumped to favoring the Warriors by three points. Is Leonard worth five points? Quite possibly, though it did feel a touch extreme.

The number rose to Golden State by four for a touch, before resettling at -3.

Los Angeles has been without Leonard for only four games this season, but in those four games, the Clippers’ net rating was 16.1 points worse than it is with Leonard.

This total opened at 237.5 and then plummeted with that Leonard news, falling as low as 231 on Tuesday night before climbing steadily throughout Wednesday, returning to 237, with some books stopping at 236.5.

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Clippers vs Warriors betting trend to know

Kawhi Leonard missed four late December games, the Clippers going 1-3 against the spread without him, the only win coming against the Grizzlies. Find more NBA betting trends for Clippers vs. Warriors.

Clippers vs Warriors game info

Clippers vs Warriors latest injuries

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