By Kreighton Rahn. The NBA is the world’s most popular professional basketball league. The world's best athletes play in the NBA and provide ultra-exciting opportunities to bet and win on a game. NBA betting is easy and fun when you understand the nuances behind placing a bet. Only a handful of teams will return after the respite without realistic playoff expectations, and NBA betting over the next few weeks needs to take into account the remaining strength of schedule.
The NBA All-Star break is set to extend until action resumes on March 11, which means teams get to recharge their batteries. Only a handful of teams will return after the respite without realistic playoff expectations, and NBA betting over the next few weeks needs to take into account the remaining strength of schedule in addition to just how busy all these teams are about to be as they try to wrap up a unique 72-game schedule in a season that began on Dec. 22.
League officials opted to split the slate into two parts, scheduling out games until March 3 in the hopes of being able to put together an All-Star break that has now come to fruition. They announced the second-half slate on Feb. 25, creating situations that clearly favor some teams over others.
Although the next twists as we navigate this unprecedented road playing a season that began in spite of a pandemic will arrive when the trade deadline generates action on March 25, a key variable is no longer unknown. We’ve got some second-half schedule release winners and losers to key on when considering betting NBA futures.
Southwest Second-Half Schedule Winners
Due to COVID-19 issues, the San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies will have played much fewer games than everyone else entering the All-Star weekend, so they’ll face the biggest challenges over the next few months since the league is expected to do whatever it can to have all teams play the scheduled allotment of games so long as it can safely do so.
Spoiler alert – that’s not going to happen.
Still, the NBA will do its best to try and make it so, which makes winners out of the Southwest Division’s top contenders that have been able to play regularly over the regular season’s first few months, the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks.
Due to the presence of Zion Williamson, the Pelicans will play nine nationally-televised games prior to the playoffs. They’re still listed at +800 to win the Southwest Division at FanDuel due to a 5-12 road record entering the week and a porous defense Stan Van Gundy hasn’t gotten fixed, but don’t be surprised to see New Orleans make a run. Its longest road trip won’t come until the end of the regular season, stopping in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Memphis, Dallas, and Golden State from May 7-14. While challenging, the Pels should be ready for that type of challenge by then if truly a contender.
The Mavs are the betting favorite to win the division at every shop and are a -145 chalk at BetMGM despite the fact they’ll be trailing San Antonio when the season resumes.
Miami, Other L.A. Set Up to Thrive
The Miami Heat are the heavy favorite to win the Southeast (-335) at BetRivers, and you might want to go ahead and pull the trigger on that. After defeating the Atlanta Hawks at home despite star Jimmy Butler sitting out due to knee inflammation, the defending East champs reached .500 again with their sixth consecutive conquest. The Charlotte Hornets are a nice story and LaMelo Ball legitimately looks like top rookie in this 2021 class but it’s hard to get behind anyone except the Heat here and I’d imagine the odds are only going to become steeper and losing all value whatsoever.
Some may argue that’s already the case, but the fact is that the second-half schedule creates opportunities for Miami to start strong and continue its surge is something that couldn’t have been counted on weeks ago.
The Heat will join most teams in returning to action on March 11 and host division rival Orlando. After a quick road trip to Chicago the next night, Miami returns to the Sunshine State to play the Magic again in Central Florida before making the quick trip south to host slumping Cleveland. That’s a light week that presents the opportunity to open 4-0 if the Heat can take advantage, putting everyone else in the Southeast in the rear-view mirror permanently.
Despite losing the final nationally-televised Sunday afternoon game prior to the All-Star break after fading late in Milwaukee, the Clippers look the part of being one of the NBA’s most highly-regarded teams again. The Clips fell off in the bubble but were ranked among the title favorites alongside the Lakers and Bucks all of last season, so there’s value in potentially getting behind this new version now that new head coach Tyronn Lue has settled in. Serge Ibaka and Nicolas Batum continue to look like shrewd offseason pickups and the fact the team doesn’t have to leave the city from March 29-April 13 creates a great opportunity to find a groove. The Clips will play nine home games in a 15-day span.
NBA Second-Half Schedule Losers
Over a span of 68-days, the aforementioned Grizzlies and Spurs will be tasked with catching up on all those homework assignments they missed.
Memphis caught the worst of it, drawing second-half schedule that includes 40 games, a seven-game road trip, and a demoralizing 11 back-to-backs.
If you were thinking that getting Jaren Jackson Jr. back at some point could elevate the Grizzlies considering there’s a value as high as +800 for them to win the Southeast at DraftKings, that second-half slate doused that idea with some cold water. Nothing is impossible, but Memphis risks burnout if forced to go all out without mixing in some load maintenance for the likes of point guard Ja Morant and center Jonas Valanciunas.
San Antonio also has 40 games to make up in the 68-day span but only has seven back-to-backs to tackle with its deep roster.
The Wizards were the Eastern Conference team most affected by cancelations and are scheduled to play 38 games and seven back-to-backs in order to catch up.
New York opened the Monday prior to the All-Star break ahead of the Celtics and Raptors as the entire Atlantic Division checked in at .500 or better. Unfortunately, the Knicks’ reserved seat at the rear of the division schedule will probably be waiting for them since their final run is brutal. Tom Thibodeau’s team opens May on the road with a six-game trip that starts with a back-to-back in Houston and Memphis and against the Nuggets, Suns, Clippers, and Lakers.
NBA Betting Types and Odds
Even though basketball is a simple game, it takes time and effort to gain a high level of knowledge and gain an edge over bookmakers with NBA betting.
This article explains the basic rules of basketball, the types of bets you can use, and give an overview of what you need to consider to make money with NBA betting.
NBA Betting: Understanding the Rules
Basketball is played five against five on a court made up of 2 baskets, under which there is an area called the racket. The games are divided into four quarter-times of 10 minutes (12 minutes in NBA).
A player who scores from inside the racket offers 2 points to his team. If the shot is taken from the outside of the racket, then this is worth 3 points. Free throws, awarded after a foul, are worth 1 point.
To score during an active phase of play, a player must continuously bounce the ball. He is not allowed to take more than two steps without a rebound. This is called a 'walk.' This fault also applies if the player jumps and lands on his feet without releasing the ball.
Also, a player does not have the right to resume his dribble after stopping (or to take back the ball after having released it if the latter has not touched anything). It is also forbidden to 'carry' the ball: the hand must be in constant contact with the ball's upper part.
NBA Betting Types and Odds
Money line betting: The NBA betting moneyline is no different from the NFL or baseball betting moneyline. Even if the sport is different, the point is to predict the winner of the game and bet.
Handicap betting: Basketball handicap betting is a slight evolution of moneyline betting. Both teams will be given a positive or negative scoring handicap so that the objectively perceived difference in ability is even.
The team that appears to be superior is given a negative handicap to overcome. The team that seems to be disadvantaged is given a positive handicap treated as a lead from the beginning.
Totals betting: In the NBA betting total market, it doesn't matter which team wins. It is a betting method that predicts whether the total number of scores of both teams will exceed (over) or fall below (under) the bookmaker's expected value.
Quarters and halves: In addition to the basic betting market described above, you can also place bets on the first quarter and the first half of NBA games. Your betting NBA betting odds and options (money line, handicap, total) will remain the same, but you will bet on results in shorter spans.
Outright market: There is little room for mistakes in betting on individual matches, and it is not uncommon for randomness and luck to change the outcome. In contrast, the outright market generally allows you to bet on longer spans, such as the NBA's 82 regular-season games (or more).
How to Bet on NBA Odds
Nba Sports Betting Today
1) Schedule analysis: whether the team is in B2B (when a team played the day before) or not, study the upcoming games to see if the schedule for the team is complicated or not (because in the NBA, the season is long with a lot of matches and sometimes the teams do 'no matches').
2) Study the last matches of the teams and their previous confrontations: Watch the game's summary. However, H2H is relatively irrelevant in the NBA, with rosters changing every year and different game circumstances. That can 'reassure' but in no case condition a bet.
3) Compare the two teams' collective statistics: attack, defenses, rebounds, passes, stray balls—you can use them but not everything and anything. The emphasis should above all be on the average number of possession per match (basically knowing if a team prefers the half-court game and goes after 24s to build an attack or if it favors fast play).
Nba Betting Forum
5) Inventory of the teams: Note the injured and the unsure, and it is often the longest because sometimes a player is announced on the field or in the stands only 30 minutes before the match. Hence, it's not always easy; it can be the most complicated factor to consider.
Nba Betting Consensus
6) Use an algorithm that evaluates your analyses in a calculation that allows you to compare the theoretical odds to the odds on the book to see if there is value. Then, select a bet with odds greater than or equal to 1.70.