NBA Money Making Situations
By Carlo Campanella
The NBA season has passed its halfway point as we returned from the All-Star Break last week. At this time, we have enough games played to accurately predict team form cycles and profitable team trends and also enough games left to wager on this information and make some money.
While some teams like Boston are considered the cream of the crop, and others like Memphis are almost already out of the playoff hunt, both can slide under the public's radar and offer value in some specific betting situations. When looking to place a wager, don't get overconfident just because of a team's good, or bad, SU record. These are professional basketball teams and all of them have situations that favor or frown upon them.
Take for example the Lakers, who are one of the NBA's most heavily bet teams due to their awesome 46-10 record. While the Lakers are favored in almost every game they played this season, they're a horrible 2-10 ATS on the road in games with a posted Total of 210 points or more this season! You should consider "playing against" these Lakers in some other situations as well, we find them at just 9-15 ATS when facing teams with records below the Mendoza line (.500) this year and 8-15 ATS against teams allowing 99 points or more this year!
The Cleveland Cavs are another team with one of the NBA's best records at 43-11, but you can play them with even more confidence at home, where they own a 20-6 ATS record this season and 20-9 ATS after winning their previous game by double digits.
Orlando owns a 41-14 record this year, but is in the exact opposite situation as Cleveland. We find the Magic posting a very profitable 19-8 ATS record when playing on the road, including a perfect 4-0 ATS as road favorites of three points or less! Orlando is also a very solid play against teams scoring 99 points or more per game, as they've covered the spread in 14 of 18 games that fall into that situation this season.
At 22-34, Charlotte is a losing team that's quickly falling out of playoff contention. However, they're a great play at 15-10 ATS when playing on the road and an even more shocking 17-12 ATS when playing teams that own a winning record!
Oklahoma City might only be 13-43, however, they're a profitable 12-8 ATS after a losing their previous game by 10 points or more and 14-8 ATS against teams scoring 99 points per game or more this season.
One of the most surprising situations is found on the miserable Sacramento Kings, who own one of the NBA's worst records at 12-45. While it may be hard for bettors to back the Kings, watch out for them after they lose a game by 10 points or more as they've posted a winning 13-9 ATS record in their next game!
The Miami Heat are at 29-26 following the All-Star break, but don't get lazy on defense in back-to-back games, as they've posted a 9-2 ATS record after allowing 105 points or more in their previous game.
The Detroit Pistons are 27-27 and have been major Eastern Conference contenders the past five years, but watch them slip as the season continues to move forward, as we find them at 0-8 ATS the last eight times they've faced teams that sport a winning record!