Shoot The Rock! Jan. 15 NBA Edition – Latest Betting News and Tips
The midpoint of the NBA is here for some teams or will be by early next week. Here is a look at important information for NBA basketball bettors to consider, as well as fun stuff.
Cleveland and Oklahoma City are Delivering
As of January 14, the teams with the two best records in the NBA are Cleveland at 33-5 and Oklahoma City at 32-6. If for some reason they
were able to maintain those paces through the rest of the regular season (which we doubt), those winning percentages would be third and fourth all-time in NBA history behind Golden State (2015-16) and Chicago (1995-96).
When teams play at that level of excellence, it’s hard for oddsmakers to go super aggressive when the Thunder are winning by 12.7 PPG and the Cavaliers at 10.8 PPG, the Top 2-point differentials in the sport. Because these are not yet public betting teams in the normal sense, the wagering numbers are relatively fair.
As you might expect, these clubs are also the two finest outfits to wager on with Cleveland at 26-12 ATS and OKC 25-12-1 ATS. At present, it would be great to have these two in the NBA Finals, though, because neither is a larger brand or has a well-known superstar, viewing numbers might suffer.
What’s interesting is Cleveland only has the 4th-best odds to win a championship, with Boston #1, New York #3, and Oklahoma City #2.
Houston Rockets are Soaring
Houston’s rebuild continued last year to reach .500 and they were five games short of making the play-in aspect of the playoffs. Outside of catastrophic injuries, the Rockets will not only make the playoffs but at this time be one of the Top 3 seeds in the West.
Head coach Ime Udoka showed what he could do in Boston, before using poor judgment in his personal life which led to his firing. Going to Houston was the perfect spot for him, with a rebuilding team nobody cared about but had an owner who wanted to win, with the patience and business acumen to build it the correct way.
The Rockets have drafted well and have players like Jalen Green, Amen Thompson, and Jabari Smith Jr. who are part of the foundation of the future, along with savvy veterans who know how to win like Fred Van Vleet and Dillon Brooks. However, the linchpin of this team’s success is 22-year-old center Alperen Sengun who has taken off in his third year.
This crew is 22-16 ATS and 11-6 ATS on the road which is a very good sign. They’re not ready to win a title, but with them in the same division as Oklahoma City, Memphis, Dallas, and San Antonio, the Southwest will be the best division by a far stretch, very soon if not already.
Detroit Exiting the Doldrums
What started as more of the same in the Motor City has turned into quite a turnaround for the Detroit franchise. After four seasons of
averaging 18.5 wins a year, there was hope after an injury-plagued year and only 14 victories that Pistons could win 30 to, an outside chance 35 games if health went their way.
After a 1-5 start, there was hesitation that maybe the optimism was farfetched, especially with a new head coach in Bernie Bickerstaff Jr. After reaching a season-low six games below .500 on Dec. 19, Detroit got in sync and is humming. The Pistons are 10-2 and 8-4 ATS since, with Cade Cunningham the leading man. Other talented youngsters include Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey (currently on IL), but having players that have seen it all like Tim Hardaway Jr, Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley offers hope this team could reach .500 and be a play-in team. Worth following at for basketball bettors.
NBA Betting Underachievers – Play Against
Phoenix and Atlanta
The only sort of good part of these two teams is they have .500 record overall. Suns fans will disagree because their team was built to win now but they have more flaws than an Alaska Airlines passenger door.
The Suns are 13-24-1 ATS and the Hawks are 15-23 ATS.
Phoenix thought they had the power trio with Durant, Beal and Booker, but for 18 months, this group has seldom been healthy at the same time and because of their salaries, weaknesses abound in other spots of their rotation.
Though Trae Young can perform as a singular talent, that’s mostly how Atlanta’s five individuals compete on the floor at a time, all having to get their shots in their allotted time on the floor.
Both are capable of winning and covering numbers in streaky fashion and the opposite is also true.
Celtics Drowning Backers
Boston might have the 3rd-best record in The Association, but no Bean-Town fan is singing their praises at 16-24 ATS.
Granted, the Celtics face a vast number of large point spreads, 22 or -10 or higher in their first 40 trips to the court. Nevertheless, because of their excessive three-point shooting, they will give away large leads with a degree of regularity. A very unpredictable wager that lacks many positives despite their W/L record.
Get more NBA betting advice from Doug Upstone here and purchase Doug’s Premium picks here.
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