NBA - 603 Atlanta Hawks @ 604 Indiana Pacers
Projected Line: Indiana by 4 points
Atlanta is on a relatively poor spot for tonight, as they will play their third game in four days, while this game being also the second game of a back to back, even though they played an early game (3PM EST start) yesterday in Milwaukee, so even the travel to Indianapolis was a short one. Still, Al Horford played 41 minutes yesterday, while Josh Smith and Jeff Teague played 36 minutes. This isn't a great spot for them, but it isn't a deadly spot neither. Even though they will be facing the best defense in the league, Atlanta's offense will still have some interesting edges tonight. First of all, Al Horford will have a good edge over Roy Hibbert, as the Pacers's frontcourt defense can't seem to stop Horford, who is averaging 66.7% FG and 17.0 ppg against Indiana this season (3 games already played). Horford's mid-range shooting is very tough matchup for Hibbert, who likes to play close to the basket and has no speed to handle Horford outside his comfort zone. Indiana generally counts Horford's mid-range shooting with their own version of Horford, David West, but he is still out for tonight's game due to a back injury. West was very important on Indiana's games against Atlanta, as he averaged 53.2% FG, 21.3 ppg, 3 apg and 2 stl on the three games played between these two teams this season. Without David West, we will have a matchup between Josh Smith and Tyler Hansbrough, a player that Josh should have no problems in defending.
The Hawks should also be able to do some damage on pick and roll ball handler plays with Jeff Teague, but they won't be able to be effective on transitions against Indiana's great transition defense. On the other side, Indiana will have a nice edge in terms of boards, but Indiana is deeply missing David West on offense, especially with Paul George being physically limited as well with a finger injury. The Hawks's have been really lazy on 3pts defense lately with 38% 3pts allowed sine the All Star break, but Indiana's 3pts shooting is super streaky and they are cold right now with 31.3% 3pts on their last 5 games. Therefore, we have the necessary conditions in here for Atlanta to be competitive tonight and so, I'll be taking them in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 603 Atlanta Hawks (+7,5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Betonline
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