Gambling: Some interesting betting possibilities on NBA playoff-opening weekend
Playoff basketball is one of the best things in the world, and if your favorite team didn’t make the postseason, don’t worry. There’s still daily fantasy sports and betting to give you more of a rooting interest. After some fun action Saturday, there are four more games Sunday, featuring the two top seeds in the East and West.
We’ll start with the Philadelphia 76ers, who host the Washington Wizards after locking up home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. This game is opening up with the 76ers an eight-point favorite, and I honestly think they win by more than that.
Washington just doesn’t have the talent outside of Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal to match this Sixers team, and it certainly doesn’t have anyone capable of slowing down Joel Embiid. Philadelphia is also at home where it posted an average scoring margin of +8.9 during the regular season, the third-highest mark in basketball. The Sixers have also covered the spread 55.1% of the time, good for the sixth-highest rate in the league.
Then there is the Utah Jazz, the top seed in the Western Conference. They could get Donovan Mitchell back in the lineup, but if they don’t, I’ll be very interested in the points prop for Bojan Bogdanovic in this game. With Mitchell off the floor this season, Bogdanovic’s usage rate jumps up by 4.3%, giving him a solid 27.3% usage rate in the split. He was also attempting 15-20 shots per game down the stretch and would have that same volume if Mitchell remains out.
The matchup is also good, as the Grizzlies allowed the second-most points per possession off screens during the regular season (1.07). That bodes well for Bogdanovic, who averaged nearly two points per game off the play type this year.
Finally we have an interesting series between the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks. I expect this series to go seven games, but the first one opens up with an over/under of 215 points. It isn’t a crazy total, but I’m leaning toward the under. These teams have been off for a few days, which could lead to some rust and poor shooting like we saw between the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, the Knicks are a top-five team in terms of defensive rating and bottom-five team in pace, which tends to lead to lower-scoring games. The under hit in 55.6% of their regular-season games.




