Sixers And Wizards NBA's Best And Worst ATS

Philadelphia covered the spread in 19 of its initial 29 games on the schedule.

With the NBA’s all-star weekend just 10 days away, each team around the league is approaching (or has reached) 30 games played, making for a pretty strong sample size to examine ATS statistics. Here’s a look at the teams that have been the best and worst at covering the spread through the first portion of the season.

The best team against the spread has been one of the NBA’s biggest surprise teams in the Philadelphia 76ers. Entering the season as a 125/1 long shot to win the NBA Championship, most were writing the 76ers off as an also-ran in the Eastern Conference. But with the 11th best offense in the league (95.9 points per game) and the second best defense (allowing just 86.8 points per game),

Philadelphia has the third best straight-up record in the Eastern Conference at 20-9 and the best ATS record in the league at 19-10, covering the spread 65.5 percent of the time.

The only other team covering spreads at 60 percent or better is the Los Angeles Clippers with a 15-9-2 ATS record (62.5%). Big things were expected from the Clippers this season after they traded for Chris Paul, but not many were expecting Los Angeles to gel so quickly; the Clippers entered Wednesday with the sixth best offense in the NBA (98.4 points per game) and the third best record in the Western Conference at 17-9.

Rounding out the top five in the ATS winners category are the Denver Nuggets (17-12 SU and ATS), San Antonio Spurs (20-9 SU and 17-12 ATS) and Chicago Bulls (24-7 SU and 18-14 ATS).

While the Nuggets and Spurs have the same ATS record, they are going in different directions. Denver is 3-7 SU and ATS in its last 10 games while San Antonio is 8-1 SU and ATS in its last nine. For Chicago, a day-to-day back injury keeping star point guard Derrick Rose out of action could hurt the Bulls’ ATS production.

Looking at the best teams to fade over the first 30 games of the season, the three teams with the worst straight up records in the standings also have the worst ATS results. The New Orleans Hornets (5-23 SU, 11-17 ATS), Charlotte Bobcats (3-25 SU, 10-18 ATS) and the Washington Wizards (7-22 SU, 10-19 ATS) are all covering the spread in less than 40 percent of their games.

Rounding out the bottom six are the Phoenix Suns (12-17 SU and ATS), New Jersey Nets (8-21 SU, 12-16-1 ATS) and the New York Knicks (14-15 SU, 12-16-1 ATS). The Knicks' struggles against the NBA odds are clearly weighed down by a 4-15-1 ATS start to the season; New York is 8-1 ATS in its last nine games and has won six straight backed by the red-hot point guard sensation Jeremy Lin.

Looking ahead on the schedule, there are a couple of key matchups coming up in which a Top 5 ATS team is facing a Bottom 5 ATS team. The Wizards (10-19 ATS) meet the Clippers (15-9-2 ATS) Wednesday night and the New Jersey Nets (12-16-1 ATS) will take on the Bulls (18-14 ATS) Saturday night.