NBA Picks: New Orleans Hornets at Orlando Magic
Written by Steve Janus - Google +
The Orlando Magic will look for revenge when they host the New Orleans Hornets Friday night at the Amway Center. The Hornets ended the Magic’s nine game winning streak earlier this season with a 92-89 overtime win in New Orleans.
Taking a look at the NBA spreads for tonight’s games, oddsmakers have the Magic favored by 9-points over the Hornets with the total set at 189.5.
The Hornets don’t seem as threatening this time around. New Orleans lost 103-101 in overtime at New Jersey on Wednesday. Their fourth straight loss and six in their last seven games.
While Orlando is just 9-7 since their loss to the Hornets, they come in having won two straight and three of their last four. The Magic were able to hold on for 99-95 win at Philadelphia on Wednesday, just one night after beating the Clippers 101-85 at home.
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The Hornets struggles started with a 102-96 loss at Sacramento, and have since been made even worse with injuries to Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza, both of which will be out for the rematch against the Magic. Not exactly a good thing for New Orleans, considering the two combined for 34 points and 18 rebounds against the Magic.
With those two out of the lineup it has forced the Hornets to use a bunch of different rotations, and so far nothing has really worked. David West led the way against the Nets with 32 points and 15 rebounds, Willie Green added 19, and Chris Paul finished with nine points and 11 assists. New Orleans had been having trouble getting production off the bench, but got 17 points from Marco Belinelli and 12 from Jarret Jack in the loss.
The problem for New Orleans is they aren’t getting it done on the defensive end of the floor, and it’s hard to see that changing against Dwight Howard and the Magic.
Against the 76ers on Wednesday Howard had a game-high 30 points and 17 rebounds, and is simply ripping apart opposing defenses of late. Howard is averaging nearly 24 points and 12 rebounds over his last five games, and had 29 and 20 against the Hornets earlier this season.
While Howard did the majority of the damage against Philadelphia, five other players scored in double-figures. J.J. Redick had 13 off the bench, while Jameer Nelson, Jason Richardson, and Ryan Anderson all had 12. Hedo Turkoglu was the low man of the group with just 10 points.
I don’t think the Hornets have enough to keep this game close without Okafor and Ariza. Even though its a big spread, I would lay the points and take the Magic in this one.
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