NBA Hot and Cold Bets – Week 12
The NBA is now in full swing and our eight-month marathon of the pro basketball season is close to half over. Matt Fargo will be looking into Hot and Cold NBA bets throughout the season and he takes a look at four games that you will want to pay attention to.
NBA Hot Bets
Wednesday – Oklahoma City Thunder at Golden St. Warriors 10:35 PM ET
Oklahoma City finally lost a game against the number as it went down at home against Miami as a one-point favorite on Sunday night. The fact that the Thunder were the favorites tells you something right there. It was the first time they were a chalk since their third game of the season when they were favored by a point and a half over Minnesota. The loss against the number snapped spread cover runs of 15-3 ATS and 22-6 ATS. Now the question is has Oklahoma City lost all of its value? After all, it is just 7-21 straight up over that 28-game span so not getting a lot of points is definitely going to hurt. This will be the first game since then and that loss may trigger some extra line value. Golden St. has been struggling all season and it is not getting any better. Despite a 12-29 record, the Warriors have been favored 12 times this season and that continued just on Monday against Washington. The Warriors will be favored again on Wednesday but how much will depend if we get involved or not.
Thursday – Boston Celtics at Orlando Magic 8:00 PM ET
The Celtics are picking up steam at the right time as they have a brutally hard schedule following Monday’s game against Phoenix. Boston has to deal with 10 of its next 14 games are on the road including eight games against teams currently sitting in playoff spots. While the Celtics have won four straight after going 2-7 in their previous nine games, they are not the ‘Hot’ bet here. Orlando continues to eat the league up as it has won seven straight (6-1 ATS) including all four games from its just completed roadtrip. That includes solid wins over the Spurs, Lakers and Nuggets. The Magic are now 33-8 on the season (28-12-1 ATS) and one of those eight losses happened to come against the Celtics. They lost that game by 19 points which was the biggest loss of the season.
Orlando won two of three against Boston last season with both wins coming at home so revenge is no doubt a very good possibility. Orlando will have had five days off prior to this game and while rust could be an issue, the rest from playing seven games in 12 days will be more beneficial.
NBA Cold Bets
Tuesday – Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls 8:35 PM ET
The Hawks looked as though they may have been poised to make a run at Orlando but they have fallen on some hard times. After putting together a 9-1 run to end December, Atlanta has completely gone in the opposite direction, having lost six of its last nine games (2-7 ATS) following its win against Toronto on Monday. Just like that, the Hawks are now 8.5 games behind Orlando meaning that division is likely over especially after getting swept in a home-and-home series with the Magic two weeks ago. This team is ice cold right now and looks to be playing with no confidence especially with Marvin Williams and Al Horford on the shelf. Chicago is certainly no prize but it has been at least playing better at home, going 10-6 (7-9 ATS) over its last 16 games at the United Center. The Bulls are 13-8 (10-11 ATS) overall at home and they will be in double revenge mode here as they have lost both meetings to the Hawks this season, one at home and one in Atlanta, making it three straight setbacks against them dating back to last season.
Wednesday – Phoenix Suns at New York Knicks 7:30 PM ET
Phoenix will make its first appearance at MSG against former head coach Mike D’Antoni. The Knicks lost the first meeting against his former team by eight points in Phoenix but they did manage to cover by a point. New York is playing decent right now, going 4-2 over its last six games and 6-6 over its last 12 games. The Suns have been playing .500 ball as well and that is not a good thing for this team. Heading into Boston on Monday, the Suns were 12-10 over their last 22 games and are currently only a game out from actually missing the playoffs. The Suns have been one of the bigger disappointments for backers as hey are just 13-23-1 against the number including a7-9-1 ATS mark on the road. The Suns have allowed 108.4 ppg over their last five games and it has been nearly as bad during the 12-10 stretch. Over those 22 games, the defense has given up an average of 106.5 ppg. The Knicks have the ability to have success against that stop unit is it has topped 100 points in 14 of its last 21 games.
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