Hornets aim to stop skid vs. Warriors

Basketball Betting Lines

03/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Orleans Hornets are in danger of recording their longest losing streak in three years. Fortunately for the struggling club, it'll be facing one of the NBA's poorest road teams when the Golden State Warriors enter the Big Easy tonight for a Western Conference matchup.

New Orleans has dropped its last four games and five of the past six contests to fall to 11th place in the West, five games back of Portland for the conference's eighth and final playoff seed. Since All-Star point guard Chris Paul suffered a knee injury in late January, the Hornets have gone a subpar 6-11.

The Hornets' latest mishap occurred Friday in San Antonio, where seven Spurs players scored in double figures in a 102-91 victory over their Southwest Division rivals.

New Orleans was within striking distance after three quarters of play, trailing by a 74-69 score, but Manu Ginobili's three-pointer two minutes into the fourth ignited a 13-5 run that enabled the Spurs to pull away.

"We competed and played extremely hard," said Hornets head coach Jeff Bower. "I thought we played well for a lot of the game. I don't think we had enough plays to come out on the plus side on the road."

Darren Collison poured in 32 points for the Hornets in a losing cause, with David West compiling 22 points, nine rebounds and seven assists on the night. Marcus Thornton scored 18 points before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with an upper back strain, although the rookie is expected to play tonight.

New Orleans, which hasn't lost five in a row since a six-game slide from March 2-13, 2007, will play six of its next seven on the road following tonight's tilt.

Golden State has also been without its best player for some time, with high- scoring guard Monta Ellis slated to sit out a sixth straight game this evening due to a sore back. Even with Ellis available, the Warriors haven't had much success in enemy buildings this season, having lost 27 of their 31 outings as the visitor for the campaign.

The Warriors have been dealt defeats in each of the first four tests of a road trip that concludes tonight, including Saturday's 101-90 setback at Charlotte. Golden State trailed just 86-85 midway through the fourth quarter, before the Bobcats put together a 15-2 spurt to kill any comeback hopes.

"We hung around for a long time. They finally figured out a way to hurt us with the zone (defense)," Warriors head coach Don Nelson said. "We kept waiting -- and we got away with it for a long, long time -- and they finally got it in the middle of our zone and that was pretty much the end of it."

Stephen Curry led Golden State, which shot just 38.2 percent from the field, with 25 points, with Corey Maggette finishing with 19 points in the loss.

The Warriors also played Saturday's game without starting center Andris Biedrins (groin), while replacement Ronny Turiaf left in the first quarter after straining his left knee. Neither player is expected to be in uniform tonight.

New Orleans has won both previous meetings between the teams in 2009-10, including a 108-102 decision at home on December 23.

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

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