Live Betting Weekly: Heat Ice-Cold in Third Quarter Betting
MLB Live betting at BetUS Sportsbooks continues to draw a crowd thanks to the excitement and potential for quick profits. With the extra attention in-play betting is getting, I wanted to go over a couple of upcoming events rife with live betting value.
While it’s impossible to predict the future enough to make picks on live betting lines, we can offer some information to help you make the right choice.
Nuggets vs Heat NBA Finals
If Monday’s Game 5 goes the Denver Nuggets’ way, it will be the last chance for NBA live betting fans to cash in this season. With a 3-1 lead, Denver can clinch their first NBA Finals win in franchise history. The Miami Heat, meanwhile, will have their hopes dashed of going all the way as a play-in team.
We’ve talked about Miami’s slow start to the second half of games after Game 2, and they have continued this trend in games three and four. You can use Miami’s lazy third-quarter performance via pregame and in-game NBA betting.
This trend is nothing new for Miami as the Heat were the worst team in the NBA regarding third-quarter scoring at 26.3 PPG. It’s hard to say why the Heat struggle to regain momentum after their halftime break, but the results are clear.
The Heat in the third quarter:
Jimmy Butler ➤ 12 points, 5-6 FG
Rest of team ➤ 8 points, 3-14 FG pic.twitter.com/Th2m7gmyas— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 8, 2023
During the NBA Finals, the Nuggets have outscored the Heat in all four games, including their Game 2 loss.
In Game 3, the Nuggets won the third quarter 29-20, easily covering the pregame spread. Then, in Game 4, the Nuggets did it again with a 31-22 blowout coming out of the half. Not only is Denver winning the third quarter, but by an average of over nine points over the last two games.
The Nuggets’ results in the third shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, considering they were a top-10 team in third-quarter scoring during the regular season (29.3 PPG).
With a 4-0 record ATS and SU in the third quarter during this series, you couldn’t convince me not to make an NBA bet on the Nuggets to go 5-0 on Monday night.
Athletics vs Rays Series
The Oakland Athletics have become a staple of this weekly article thanks primarily to having the worst bullpen in the MLB. Truth be told, they have the worst everything in the MLB, but I’m just going to focus on their relief pitching.
The 9th inning continues to be a mess for the A’s, with Oakland’s bullpen ERA holding firm at 6.00.
But the A’s may have found a closer who can, at the very least, keep the final frame in check and give Oakland chances to win.
Sam Long took over 9th-inning duties for Jeurys Familia and the rest of the bullpen with three positive results in a row. He put a hold against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday and made back-to-back saves against the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend.
To put into perspective how bad the rest of the team is, Long is tied for the team lead in saves after just 1⅓ innings.
Thanks to Long locking down the 9th inning on consecutive nights, the A’s swept the Brewers in a shocking turn of events. On Sunday, Long came in after Trevor May loaded the bases and walked in a run with two outs in the 9th. May allowed a two-run single but wasn’t charged with the run and ended up escaping with the win.
That’s a sweep, folks 🧹 pic.twitter.com/RGoiW2k6o8
— A’s on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) June 11, 2023
The team has just eight total saves this season, but I believe their 9th innings woes may slowly fade with Long pitching well.
I will closely monitor his progress this week, but the A’s are no longer an auto-fade when live MLB betting during the 9th inning.
The rest of the bullpen is still hot garbage, so feel free to fade them on the live MLB odds whenever the manager picks up that bullpen phone.
