If you favored the chalk on Thursday, you may have walked away with a lot of moolah as the favorites won five of their six games. However, the Atlanta Hawks would have sunk your parlay if you went in with all six favorites as they took out the Phoenix Suns. Otherwise, chalk bettors and ‘over’ fans would have done well on the NBA betting lines.
Hawks Snap Suns’ Winning Streak
The Atlanta Hawks defended home court and ended the Phoenix Suns’ 11-game winning streak as Trae Young erupted for a game-high 43 points. This would be the second-highest total he’d score for this season as he shot a 64% from the field including 6-of-11 3-pointers.
❄️ Find a way.. #WeMove pic.twitter.com/utDZW4uvlA
— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) February 4, 2022
Young took over the game in the third quarter, scoring 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting as his Hawks couldn’t be stopped and returned to the win column in a big way. The win would only be Atlanta’s second as an underdog at home. They would improve to 8-13 against the spread as an underdog in any situation.
As for Phoenix, their moneyline record as favorite dropped to 39-8. This would only be their third loss against an Eastern Conference opponent and they remain in the green on the online sportsbook spread: 28-23 ATS.
Rest of the Favorites Win Out
But the Hawks were the only underdog to come out unscathed. The other five lost as favorites nearly swept the slate. The first three to play, the Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Toronto Raptors all covered as well and if you bet online on a parlay of their spreads, you’d have cashed nearly $600 ($595) on a $100 wager.
The Heat downed San Antonio by double their spread: 17 points. Minnesota used a big third quarter, like the Hawks, to run away against the Detroit Pistons while the Toronto Raptors needed overtime but still defeated the Bulls by seven points.
The underdogs from the later games all won on the spread even if the Los Angeles Lakers could not complete the comeback against their city rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers. The LeBron James-less Lakers held the Clippers to just 17 fourth-quarter points but lost by one.
The Sacramento Kings just barely covered as they cut down their 14-point deficit with a dunk from Maurice Harkless with just over a minute to spare. This would be the third spread of their last four that the Kings have covered.
Night Of High-Scoring Games
The ‘overs’ went the way of the favorites this evening: all but one cashed. This isn’t surprising as five of the top six teams with the highest over percentage (Over %) were in action. However, the Miami Heat, which had the top Over % at 61.5% prior to the game, was the sole game to go under.
Their game went much lower than their 223.5 total as San Antonio failed to even hit 100 points. However, from the Wolves-Pistons game to the Kings-Warriors it was smooth sailing for almost every other ‘over’ bet.
The Lakers-Clippers just made it over thanks to Reggie Jackson’s layup in the dying seconds. That play cashed both the Clippers’ moneyline and the over. The Lakers improved their over % to 56.6% with this.
The Raptors-Bulls game had the highest total at 247 points thanks to overtime. But even without the extra five minutes, the total had already gone over at 240, 17 points over the 223 it was lined at prior to tip-off as both teams stayed above the 55% over rate.
