NBA Grind Down: Wednesday, December 18th - Page 3
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Chicago at Houston
- Vegas Line – Houston -7, 192 Over/Under
- Chicago Proj. Starters – Teague-Butler-Deng-Boozer-Noah
- Houston Proj. Starters – Beverley-Harden-Parsons-Jones-Howard
Chicago
Kirk Hinrich has already been ruled out of tonight’s game so look for the dynamic duo (sarcasm) of Marquis Teague and D.J. Augustin to pick up the slack. Augustin has been the better of the two in the last two games and carries a little value on sites where he is priced at the minimum. The matchup does line up well for him. The Rockets are below average defensively against every position so all of the Bulls are in play here. Carlos Boozer is my favorite big just because I think Noah could get in foul trouble against Dwight.
- Luol Deng – Deng is back at full strength and back to playing big minutes. The fact that Hinrich is out only helps Deng’s value because the Bulls like to run the offense through him when they don’t have a great PG in there. Look for Deng to push for 40 minutes and 30+ FP’s.
Houston
There aren’t many Rockets games where you will see the total set at only 192 points. That just goes to show you how slow of a pace the Bulls play at. The Bulls also play solid defense. The Rockets are expected to see less possessions than their season average and I think that really hurts the value of both James Harden and Dwight Howard. Less possesions = less shots to go around.
- Patrick Beverley – I do like Beverley tonight though. Jeremy Lin is out of tonight’s game and Beverley should push for 35+ minutes as long as this one stays close. Neither Teague or Augustin are great defenders and I think Beverley can force some turnovers against them on defense.
New Orleans at L.A.Clippers
- Vegas Line – L.A.Clippers -10.5, 204.5 Over/Under
- New Orleans Proj. Starters – Holiday-Gordon-Aminu-Anderson-Smith
- L.A.Clippers Proj. Starters – Paul-Crawford-Dudley-Griffin-Jordan
New Orleans
Last but not least we have the Pelicans and the Clippers. The Pelicans are in a tough spot tonight. They are coming off of a blowout loss to the Warriors last night and now have to face another one of the best offenses in the league. Vegas has the Clippers as double-digit favorites so the potential for a blowout is definitely there. For that reason, I will avoid the high priced players in this one. For the Pelicans that means Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson.
- Al-Farouq Aminu – Aminu is the one player that I am considering for cash games from the Pelicans. He has been seeing major minutes with Davis out and has really put together some solid fantasy performances.
L.A.Clippers
My thoughts on the Clippers are the same as they were for the Pelicans. Due to the potential blowout, I will be avoiding both Blake Griffin and Chris Paul. Their prices are just so high that you don’t want to risk them sitting out the entire 4th quarter. The only play that I would look at here would be Jamal Crawford, but he’s more of a GPP play anyway.