Golden State Warriors vs Los Angeles Clippers Preview (3/15/23): Prediction, Starting Lineups, Odds

Golden State hopes to fix its problems away from Chase Center when it travels south for a Western Conference battle with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Below, you can find our betting picks and predictions for Golden State versus Los Angeles, as well as starting lineups, odds, and injury news. Check it out!

Golden State Warriors Vs. Los Angeles Clippers Betting Odds

The Los Angeles Clippers are 2.5-point home favorites against Golden State on Wednesday. The Dubs have a lengthy injury report featuring Gary Payton II (out), Andrew Wiggins (out), Andre Iguodala (out), Ryan Rollins (out), and Ty Jerome (questionable.)

Meanwhile, Los Angeles will miss Norman Powell to a shoulder injury, as well as Brandon Boston Jr.

Golden State Warriors Vs. Los Angeles Clippers Prediction

How bad have the Golden State Warriors been on the road this season?

The answer to that question lies in a multitude of unconscionable stats, especially for a team that has a core of players who have won four NBA Championships.

Golden State has the third-worst winning percentage on the road in the entire NBA; it is even worse away from Chase Center than Detroit is from Little Caesar’s, and the Pistons are objectively the worst team in the NBA, especially without future All-Star Cade Cunningham!

The Warriors’ awful winning percentage can be attributed to the mindbogglingly large difference between net ratings at home (7.7) versus on the road (-7.1), but why is that?

For one, Golden State allows opponents to shoot nearly nine percent higher from deep on the road than at home, ranking second-worst to only San Antonio.

Further, the Warriors have the third-lowest rebounding rate on the road, which drops a whopping three percent from their home average.

As mentioned in previous articles, it is difficult to diagnose what happens to this team the second they step outside of the rectangle located in the Chase Center, but they just are not the same.

Shockingly, Golden State is still not only in the hunt for the playoffs but sits in the fifth seed in a jam-packed Western Conference. So, can we at least trust the Dubs to cover in this road game?

Not a chance. The Clippers are healthier and have won three-straight home games, while Golden State hasn’t won away from home since the end of January. The last time these two teams played in Crypto.com, Los Angeles won by double-digits. It is hard to understand the glitch Golden State has on the road, but smart money does not bet on it.

Betting Trends

• Golden State is 8-24 ATS on the road in 2022-23
• Los Angeles is 15-18 ATS at home in 2022-23
• The combined over record of these two teams is 69-66-3 in 2022-23

Key Matchups

Our key matchup of the night features two players who went toe-to-toe less than two weeks ago: Kawhi Leonard and Klay Thompson. In their last game, both players struggled with the flow of the game, so see what will be different below and who will have the advantage!

Kawhi Leonard vs. Klay Thompson: Part III

Technically, this will be the fourth time that the Clippers and Warriors play this season; however, Kawhi Leonard has only played in two of those three games, with the most recent outing resulting in a relatively modest 21 points and seven rebounds.

Thompson’s performance offensively was not much more impressive, as he finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Clearly, these two have a strong understanding of each other’s offensive games from a defensive standpoint.

Frankly, that game was messy; Golden State sagged off Russell Westbrook so far that the entire Clippers offense was disrupted and discombobulated. Westbrook’s primary defender was literally 10-15 feet from him for a large portion of the time he was on the floor, begging him to shoot from deep.

Due to the circumstances, Leonard’s limited offensive performance cannot be properly evaluated as that kind of congestion is abnormal. It is fair to assume that head coach Ty Lue will have a better plan on how to counteract that strategy heading into this game.

Now, let’s look at Klay Thompson. Thompson has shown flashes of being the same player he was before he tore his ACL and Achilles, scoring in bunches and getting hot from deep.

Without Steph this season (20 games), Thompson has posted an impressive 26.4 points per game on a 45/43/90 shooting split. Those numbers are slightly lower with Curry on the floor, which is somewhat to be expected.

So, who has the advantage? It would be wise to look at the last game as more of an outlier, as the defensive strategy that Golden State put together should be less effective now that the Clippers have had time to gameplan against it.

Leonard has been shooting a borderline outrageous percent from the field and from deep in the past 20-25 games (over 50% from the field and behind the arc), so there is no reason to expect him to slow down against a defense that has the third-worst defensive rating on the road in the NBA. Advantage: Kawhi.

Golden State Warriors Starting Lineup

PG: Steph Curry
SG: Donte DiVincenzo
SF: Klay Thompson
PF: Draymond Green
C: Kevon Looney

Los Angeles Clippers Starting Lineups

PG: Russell Westbrook
SG: Paul George
SF: Kawhi Leonard
PF: Marcus Morris Sr
C: Ivica Zubac

Key Injuries

Golden State Warriors Injuries: Andre Iguodala (Out), Gary Payton II (Out), Ryan Rollins (Out), Andrew Wiggins (Out), Ty Jerome (Q)

Los Angeles Clippers Injuries: Brandon Boston Jr (Out), Norman Powell (Out)