NBA Monday January 27th - Best Bets & Betting Odds
All odds provided by Betway.
Charlotte Hornets Alternative +7.5 Point Spread (-145) vs. LAL
LeBron James continues to dominate Father Time, and the Lakers look better than they have in a few years through the first half of this season. They are sitting in 5th right now and safely out of the dreaded play-in tournament that has plagued them the last few years. They’ve also won five of their last six, and while we like them to win again today, we think the 12-30 Charlotte Hornets might give them more trouble than they’re expecting.
The Hornets have actually been on a bit of a roll in the new year. They’ve earned nearly half of their season-long win total over the last three weeks as they’ve won five of their last eight. They’re also 8-4-1 ATS in their last 13 games as underdogs, and 22-15-1 ATS overall this season when they’re expected to lose. They seem to be the perfect foil for the favorite Lakers in this situation.
Los Angeles has this terrible habit of playing down to their competition this season. Heck, they lost by 20 to a Mavericks team without Kyrie Irving or Luka Doncic a few weeks ago. The Lakers have gone 5-10 ATS when they’ve been favored by 5+ points this season. They also haven’t been great on the road (9-12 ATS), and especially not as a road favorite (3-5 ATS).
Houston Rockets Alternative +7.5 Point Spread (-140) @ BOS
The Celtics are healthy again but they have been a little bit hit or miss over the last few weeks. That can happen when you rely as heavily on the three point shot as this Boston team does. They are just 3-9 ATS in their last 12 games, and they haven’t performed great as large favorites—as they are here—going 8-14 ATS since early December in games where they were favored by 6+ points.
Houston, on the other hand, are winners of eight of their last 10, and they have been winning against the top teams in the much tougher Western Conference, including two wins against Memphis and one against Denver.
Unsurprisingly, this Rockets team has had a lot of success against the weaker Eastern Conference, going 10-6 ATS against those foes so far this year. Houston has the second best record in the West and has been playing some of its best basketball in recent weeks. There’s no reason for sports betting sites to be giving them as many points as they are here. We’ll buy a few and back Ime Udoka’s group.
Memphis Grizzlies +4.0 Point Spread (-110) @ NYK
This is another spot where we’re going to back a top Western Conference team against a strong Eastern Conference opponent. The Knicks have been really good this year, especially at home, but Ja Morant and company have been making mincemeat of Eastern Conference foes. No team has a better record against the spread when facing off with teams from the East than the Grizzlies.
Taylor Jenkins’ guys have gone 14-3 ATS against opponents from the East this year, and they have the bodies to frustrate the Knicks in the paint and on the perimeter. Memphis has won six straight, and they’ve already shown that they can hang with the best the East has to offer, as they beat the Celtics back in December. They should be able to, at the very least, keep this one tight.
LAC-PHX Game Total Points Under 225.0 Points (-150)
These two teams have been a couple of the biggest surprises of this NBA season. One for bad reasons, and one for good. I’m sure you can guess which is which. However, we’re looking at scoring here, rather than results. These teams don’t score an awful lot—neither are in the top 12 in points per game—and the Clippers are 3rd in the NBA for fewest points allowed per game, at 106.8.
Only one third of the Clippers’ last 18 games have gone over the total, and the under is 13-4 in the last 17 contests for the Suns. The betting trends are leading us towards the under, and while we generally like to avoid those, this one seems too good to be true. The under has hit at a 68 percent rate when the Suns play at home, and the under hits at the same rate when the Clippers are on the road. It’s kismet.
