Home Teams Go 3-1
On a four-game NBA slate, it was the home teams that dominated by going 3-1 straight up and against-the-spread (ATS). Let’s take a look at the NBA betting outcomes from across the slate.
The Orlando Magic were the only underdogs to cover on the slate, winning outright at home to a Golden State Warriors team that simply looks lost without Steph Curry on the floor.
The Magic closed as 7½-point underdogs and, aside from a 3-4 minutes period to close the third quarter and open the fourth quarter, the home side were comfortably inside the spread as they led for the vast majority of this contest.
“We’re just not playing good basketball,” said Warriors forward Draymond Green after the game. “We’re getting punked and we’re losing a lot of fourth quarters.”
Let’s check the latest news, stats, injury reports, and NBA odds. We’ve plenty of predictions for you to consider.
Bucks Trample Bulls
The biggest cover of the night went to the Milwaukee Bucks, who absolutely dismantled the Chicago Bulls on their first game back from a West Coast road trip.
The Bucks were 126-98 winners as they covered the closing number of 6½ by 21 points. Despite being without Khris Middleton, the home side opened a comfortable lead on the back of a 13-2 run to close out the first quarter and simply never looked back from there.
Despite our concerns about Milwaukee in our NBA betting preview, the Bucks are simply in a groove to close out the regular season as they try to make a late surge for that top seed.
The Denver Nuggets were also comfortable home winners as they covered the 7½-point spread at home to the Los Angeles Clippers.
This game was played close to the number for the vast majority of the game but, ultimately, the Clippers’ inability to make shots from the perimeter down the stretch meant the Nuggets were able to close it out. The 127-115 scoreline was slightly flattering for the home team, but also a reminder of how erratic the Clippers can be within a 48-minute period depending on how things are going for them on the perimeter.
The lone home loser was the New York Knicks, who went down 117-111 to the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden.
This game had a fair amount of line movement leading up to tip-off, with the opening number of 1½ eventually settling at 4½ in favor of the road team on the back of the news that Bogdan Bogdanovic was available for the Hawks and Julius Randle was not for the Knicks.
The Knicks opened a 10-point lead with 8:44 to play in the final frame and looked set to close out a series sweep of the Hawks and gain a measure of revenge against the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last season.
But, the Knicks’ crunch-time offense again reared its ugly head and the Hawks were able to close out on a 12-6 run to ultimately get the win, and the cover, for Atlanta bettors.
Totals were again evenly split across the board, going 2-2 on the over/under full-game sports betting markets.
The largest disparity came in Orlando, where the 94-90 final score fell 31 points shy of the closing full game total.
