The second season in the NBA is underway with the start of the opening round of the playoffs. There are eight different best-of-seven series on the board at BetStars online sportsbook, and there have already been some stunning upsets in the first 10 games played.
The underdogs got things going early with a 3-1 start both straight-up and against the spread in four of Saturday’s series openers. Things returned to normal on Sunday with a 4-0 sweep SU and ATS by the favorites. The best bet on the board in the first two days of postseason action was the total line. All eight of those initial postseason games stayed UNDER the closing betting line.
The No. 3 Philadelphia 76ers were able to quickly right the ship after losing Game 1 to the Brooklyn Nets 111-102 as 7.5-point home favorites with Monday night’s 145-123 romp as 8.5-point favorites at home. The 76ers used a 51-point outburst in the third quarter to pull away in that one. The Eastern Conference clash between these two Atlantic Division rivals resumes on Thursday night with Game 3 in Brooklyn. Philadelphia has been opened as a slight 2.5-point road favorite.
The biggest upset so far belongs to the Los Angeles Clippers as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. After dropping Saturday’s opener 121-104 to the Golden State Warriors as the top seed in the West, the Clippers stunned the defending champs 135-131 on Monday night in Oakland. LA closed as a 13.5-point road underdog in each of those games. The early betting line for Thursday’s Game 3 at the Staples Center has Golden State favored by eight points.
This mixed bag of early results is just one reason why this year’s NBA playoffs could be more interesting than they have been over the past four seasons that resulted in Cleveland facing Golden State in the last four NBA Finals. This year, LeBron James is watching the games on TV, and the Warriors just proved that they are not as invincible as everyone made them out to be.
Updated series prices for these opening-round matchups still heavily favor all the top seeds in each conference. The Milwaukee Bucks' odds to get past Detroit are set at -15000 after beating the Pistons by 35 points in Game 1. No. 2 Toronto is still a -385 favorite against Orlando even after losing the series opener on Saturday. The Raptors are 10-point home favorites to even things up on Tuesday night. It is tough even to find series price odds for the Clippers vs. Warriors series given just how heavy a favorite Golden State is to win.
The early results have had little impact on the NBA futures odds to win this year’s championship. The Warriors are still listed as -200 prohibitive favorites with Milwaukee (+400) and Houston (+600) rounding out the top three teams on the recently updated board.
While there is a higher level of parity in this season’s opening round, going chalk is probably the best betting strategy. This is especially true for a favored team coming off a bad loss. The 76ers already redeemed themselves after stumbling out of the gate. You would expect both Toronto and the Denver Nuggets to win and cover on Tuesday night coming off a Game 1 loss.
You should probably also think about locking in Golden State minus the eight points right now for Thursday’s Game 3 since it is safe to assume the number will only go up from here.
As one final observation, both of Monday’s games went OVER the closing total line. However, there could be a bit more emphasis on defense in each of these opening round matchups. This lends some more value towards sticking with the UNDER in the upcoming games.