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Now is when the NBA schedule starts to get tough. Teams are playing three games in four nights or worse four games in five nights. These are the games that are hardest for teams to win as travel and lack of rest start to catch up with players. Long road trips are also taking a toll on teams and the fun teams of the early season are starting to face the cruelties of reality in the NBA. While this may not sound like a lot of fun, it is a great time for betting on the NBA. Game three in four nights or game four in five nights is a great betting opportunity as teams almost always lose this game. Keeping an eye on this is a big part of being a good NBA bettor.
One team who this is hitting hard right now is the Portland Trailblazers. They just ended a five game road trip and for their trouble they now get to play their third game in four nights at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder. We’ll be tipping that game and if the first paragraph is any indication, you can probably guess how that is going to go.
Tonight also sees the Golden State Warriors take on the New Orleans Pelicans with both teams on the third game in four nights. Of course, this is the Warriors and the Pelicans and it’s hard to imagine any number of nights the Warriors could play in a row and for this one to be close.
NBA Betting Tips:
We’ll start with the Thunder and Blazers game. The Thunder PK are the pick here based on schedule, but also just based on what we’ve seen this season. Portland is currently running a negative point differential (-3.4 per game) and the Thunder have a much better defense. While Portland is a good home team, they are just a mess right now and OKC looks like the pick tonight.
On Saturday night in Memphis, the Golden State Warriors got beat badly by the Grizzlies. They simply didn’t show up and got licked by Memphis who were playing without Chandler Parsons and Mike Conley. This doesn’t mean that the Warriors are vulnerable tonight against the Pelicans, it means the exact opposite. After their last loss they won by 29 and 36 over their next two games. The next loss before that saw them win 12 straight. Losing makes the Warriors stronger and Golden State -10.5 seems low.
After losing ten out of 11 games, it feels like the Atlanta Hawks are back. They’ve won back-to-back games and just had four nights off so they come into tonight’s game against Orlando fully rested. Playing too many games in a short period and having a lot of rest should work as opposite forces. While I don’t think they are fully back and ready to compete for the Eastern Conference, they should easily take care of the Magic tonight. Orlando has been a mess this season, with a point differential of -5.3 per game. Atlanta will enjoy being home tonight, Hawks -7.5
