Underdogs Make Big Statement
It was yet another night for the underdogs on the hardwood, with the NBA betting lines going 7-2 in their favor.
Five of those underdogs were outright winners, starting with the Los Angeles Lakers, who ran out 131-120 winners in Cleveland as LeBron James returned to his hometown.
After a slow start that threatened to turn into another Laker’s nightmare, James led his team in an impressive fashion as he recorded a 38-point triple-double.
“I’m all out of words,” said Lakers coach Frank Vogel when talking about the efforts of his 38-year-old phenom. The Lakers were surprisingly strong in the market, moving from 6½ point underdogs down to 5.0 by tip-off.
The Portland Trail Blazers also signed off their East Coast road trip with an outright win, despite closing as 9½-point underdogs to the lowly Detroit Pistons. This was the biggest number in favor of Detroit all season and the Pistons, somewhat unsurprisingly, fell flat in trying to assert their dominance, with the Blazers quite literally managing a wire-to-wire cover.
The Philadelphia 76ers were arguably the most impressive winners on the night, though, given their circumstances. Both James Harden and Joel Embiid were given the night off for the Sixers as they played host to the top-seeded Miami Heat, yet despite their absences, the home side prevailed 113-106.
We spoke about the potential of both Harden and Embiid sitting in our NBA betting preview and while we were able to get ahead of the market, which closed at 8½ points, the home side hung around for the duration before closing things out behind the hot hand of Tyrese Maxey.
Both the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder managed to cover at home to the Washington Wizards and Boston Celtics, respectively, with the former winning outright as 3½-point underdogs.
Jazz Falter
The Brooklyn Nets also closed as underdogs, this time at home to the Utah Jazz, who again struggled to show up in a tough schedule spot.
The Jazz have been one of the worst-performing teams in the league when playing on the second night of a back-to-back (4-8 straight up) and again faded in the latter stages as the Nets closed out a 114-106 win at the Barclays Center.
The New Orleans Pelicans were another team in a tough schedule spot as they also played the second game of a back-to-back and their third in four nights. In similar fashion, they too struggled to keep up down the stretch but were at least able to cover the 5½-point spread in a 106-103 loss in Charlotte.
The nightcap provided a very entertaining game in Dallas as the Mavericks held on to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 110-108. This game opened at 3½ with the impending availability of Karl-Anthony Towns holding this line a little higher than it should have been. Once ruled in, the market settled at 1½ points in favor of the Mavericks, which became crucial in deciding the ATS winner.
Underdogs are now hitting at 56 percent over the past week in the NBA, with road underdogs, in particular, being a strong play, cashing at 60.7 percent over the same period.
Totals were fairly evenly split, with under bettors again just edging things on a 5-4 night in their favor.
Four games saw their final game total finish upward of 20 points from their closing number, with the Celtics vs. Thunder seeing the biggest discrepancy on the closing sportsbook number – a 132-123 final score on a total that closed at 217 points.
