NBA Betting: Atlanta Hawks at Detroit Pistons
NBA betting action on Friday night as the Atlanta Hawks travel to ‘Motown’ to take on the Detroit Pistons. The Hawks are 7-5 on the year while Detroit is 4-7. Both teams are playing for new coaches this season (more about that in a moment) and they last faced each other on Wednesday with the Hawks taking a 93-85 verdict at Atlanta’s Phillips Arena. Atlanta covered as a -5′ point home favorite and the final score went well ‘Under’ the posted total of 202.
Atlanta is in a bit of transition–they sent head coach Larry Drew packing despite the fact he made the playoffs in each of his three years at the helm. Mike Budenholzer is the new coach and it may take the former San Antonio assistant some time to ‘grow in’ to the job. He’s installing a new offensive and defensive system and there are plenty of new faces on the court as well. AL Horford is the only significant holdover from the previous regime which could mean that the Hawks could have some continuity problems in the early part of the season. So far that hasn’t happened, however. Atlanta’s Paul Milsap is back in action after some minor injuries sidelined him earlier this week.
Hard to make sense of what’s going on in Detroit. Former Hawk Josh Smith is the Pistons big weapon right now after signing a big money contract in the off season but he’s not been overly effective this year. He’s done a bad job with shot selection and hasn’t taken care of the ball well–typical traits of a player with a brand new big money contract. The Pistons haven’t done a good job playing team defense either. We generally like new head coach Maurice Cheeks but it could be a case where he’s a good coach that simply doesn’t have the personnel.
Typically in these ‘quick rematch’ games we look to back the team that lost the first time around. In this matchup, however, we’re going to do the opposite. In our view Atlanta is just the better team. Hawks have had little trouble with the Pistons in recent years winning 6 of the last 8 meetings outright and at this price that’s all we need them to do.
BET ATLANTA HAWKS +4 OVER DETROIT PISTONS
