WE’VE got a small slate of NBA on deck, but there’s still some nice value on offer for punters.
Let’s dive into a couple interesting match ups coming up today;
Atlanta Hawks @ Utah Jazz
The Hawks continue their tough road trip and will look to shake off last night’s thrashing as they take on the Jazz in Salt Lake City.
Atlanta have had a tough schedule so far, which might be part of why they’ve struggled to find their feet this season. That said, things aren’t going to lighten up for Nate McMillan’s side any time soon.
This is as bad of a scheduling spot as you’ll find for any team; playing at altitude on the second night of a back-to-back is a tough ask for any team, but the fact that this will be the Hawks fifth game in just seven nights highlights how rough this situation is for them.
Despite their lacklustre shooting to start the season the Jazz are still one of the most potent offence’s in the NBA and finding their rhythm from deep could come at the expense of this Hawks team.
The Jazz are still one of the best points per possession teams in the NBA to start the season, despite shooting just 32% from deep as a team. That in itself is concerning for a Hawks defence that has been about as useful as a fly screen on a submarine – they allow the most point per game in the league and are in the bottom five in defensive EFG%.
Utah’s offence has the ability to score points in bunches and can create mismatches for the Hawks on switches. Couple the potential scoring disparity with the rest advantage Utah holds and I think we could see another rough night for Trae Young and the Hawks.
My numbers project Utah winning this one by close to 11-points so I’ll happily lay the -8.0 on them here.
Our best bet: Utah Jazz -8.0
Portland Trail Blazers @ LA Clippers
Portland looks to find some consistency on the season when they take on an in-form Clippers team at the Staples Center.
This is the third meeting between these Western Conference foes already this season and while the teams have split the opening two games the latter of the two games, which was won convincingly by the Blazers, is a truer reflection on how these teams potentially match up.
If the Blazers can replicate their success from beyond the arc they’ll be a tough matchup most nights, but more importantly here is that they again dominate the boards, limit second chance points and prevent easy transition buckets.
Damian Lillard has yet to find his offensive swagger as yet but has been able to make positive contributions by getting his teammates going and is currently averaging a career-high in assist per game to start the season.
CJ McCollum is scoring the ball fantastically and they are getting great contributions from Norman Powell, Nurkic and Anfernee Simons. This sort of diversified attack is too much for the Clippers to keep pace with when they are relying so heavily on Paul George, who is receiving little assistance on the offensive end.
PG13 has been carrying the Clippers side, as expected, and defensively they have been as advertised, but missing the talent of Kawhi Leonard and contributions of Marcus Morris are going to be a huge handbrake on this side’s offensive outputs.
My numbers have Portland as small favorites in this position and I’m showing favourable value Under the points total as well so I’ll be riding each of those individually in this game.
Our best bet: Portland Trail Blazers +3.0 & Under 221.0 points
