Thursday Night's NBA Betting Picks!

Hoop Hopes – Ricky Rothstein makes his picks for tonight’s NBA action!

LA Clippers at Oklahoma City
It’s never too early to start dominating a rival and getting into their heads. That thought will be uppermost in the minds of the Clippers and Thunder tonight as they face each other for the second time in eight days. The Clippers won, 111-103, when they met in LA but home court advantage gives the Thunder -5.5 points to cover tonight.

The teams are similar in that a guard and forward tandem is what makes them tick. The Clippers’ main men are point guard Chris Paul and power forward Blake Griffin, while the men who make things happen in Oklahoma are point guard Russell Westbrook and small forward Kevin Durant. The teams are reflective of their home towns too – the Clippers play with a certain razzmatazz as Chris Paul sprays around the rock, while Westbrook and Durant emphasise the great farming values of hard work and more hard work.

What makes things hard for Oklahoma is that the Clippers are slightly deeper as regards talent. There’s less of a fall-off after Paul and Griffin than there is after Westbrook and Durant, and this will be a knock on Oklahoma until they either win the Championship or else find a true replacement for James Harden. Until that happens, let’s take the Clippers with the points.
Hoop Hope 1 | LA Clippers +5.5

Chicago at Denver
Both the Bulls and the Blackhawks are on the road for the next ten days as the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus takes over the United Center for the holidays. It’s hard to imagine either team is happy about it, but they’re both pretty much stuck with it and have to get on with it.

Tonight, the Bulls are at Denver where they’re favored by just one point. The reason why is because the Bulls, for whatever reason, hate Denver. Chicago has lost six straight at the Nuggets, and that stretches back to 2006. That’s a long time.

The Bulls are further hampered tonight by the absence of shooting guard Jimmy Butler, who’s listed as week-to-week after sustaining a turf toe injury. Derrick Rose isn’t back to himself, while the Nuggets are a free-scoring outfit who are good for 104.4 points per game, making them sixth in the League. Chicago won’t get any fonder of Denver tonight.
Hoop Hope 2 | Denver +1

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