PLENTY OF VALUE PLAYS IN THE NBA
SATURDAY’S NBA slate offers up plenty of great match-ups and value across the board for punters.
MATCH ODDS
BOSTON CELTICS: $1.30 CHICAGO BULLS: $3.45
Grabbing the Celtics by the horns
THIS is one of the GREAT uniform match-ups in all sport. And with star wings and feisty guards everywhere, Chicago-boston is another early-season treat.
The 4-3 Celtics have been pulling losses from out of nowhere, with a couple of tough losses to the Cavs showing a lack of take-charge shot-making from stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown (though Tatum’s dunk to tie that last Cavs game was off the hook).
Chicago is 5-4 and riding a surprisingly solid defence (sixth in the league, and forcing the second-most turnovers), the scoring of Demar Derozan and a resurgent Zach Lavine (look for him to go 25+ points again) to scrappy wins.
These two teams met last week, with the Bulls running over the top of the Celtics.
Expect the Celtics defence to kick up a notch at home and pull out a close win over a fun weird Bulls team, but watch Chicago cover the spread.
THE PICK: CHICAGO +8.5 - $1.79
MATCH ODDS PHOENIX SUNS: $1.19 PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS: $4.30 Blazing hot Suns
THE Portland Trail Blazers have been one of the best stories to start the NBA season. But with Dame Time on hold due to superstar Damian Lillard’s groin injury, the Blazers will struggle to beat good teams.
At the moment, the Suns are the definition of a good team: with the best offence in the NBA and ranked fourth in points against per game. They’ve also got a fully armed and operational Aussie Jock Landale firing off the bench, so good luck stopping that.
Even with young gun Anfernee Simons doing a pretty good Dame impersonation (31 pts versus the Grizzlies on Thursday), without Dame to make Chris Paul (ride his 8+ assist numbers) and Devin Booker (good for another 30+ point outing) work, the Suns will take the Blazers good vibes and run them through a blender on their way to a big win.
T THE PICK:
PHOENIX SUNS -10.5 - $2
MATCH ODDS LA LAKERS: $1.72 UTAH JAZZ: $2.05 Lakers not all that Jazz
THE Lakers are suddenly hotter than fish grease and riding a two-game win streak with Russell Westbrook coming off the bench bumping their record to, well, 2-5.
But two wins is better than none, Lakers fans.
Lebron James (lean on
LBJ going for 26-6-6+) and Anthony Davis are somehow favourites in this spot, with the logic seemingly that they’ll fancy their chances against a 6-2 Utah team made up of young cast-offs and veteran afterthoughts.
But all Utah do is play hard, and considering this is the 14th and 15-ranked defences in opponent points per game, if the likes of Collin Sexton, Lauri Markannen and Jordan Clarkson (against his old team) can carry the load offensively (all of them are good looks at 20+ points), the Jazz will surprise them.
THE PICK: UTAH JAZZ H2H
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