NBA Playoff Betting: May 5, 2014
After a very dramatic first round with a record number of series going the full seven games the second round of the NBA playoffs gets underway tonight for four teams. The Washington Wizards surprised the Chicago Bulls in the first round and will try to maintain their high level of play as they face the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers have slumped in the second half of the season and looked lost in the first few games against Atlanta but managed to recover and defeat the Hawks in 7 games. In the other best of 7 series getting underway on Monday the Los Angeles Clippers will try to put the Donald Sterling controversy behind them as they travel to Oklahoma City to take on Kevin Durant and the Thunder. The Clippers beat the Golden State Warriors in a dramatic 7 game series while Oklahoma City needed 7 games to dispatch the Memphis Grizzlies.
WASHINGTON WIZARDS AT INDIANA PACERS
Credit to the Pacers for doing what they had to do to advance but we’re still not sold on Indiana. The Atlanta Hawks were an erratic team all season long so a bit of reversal of from from them was not at all surprising. We’re not convinced that Indiana’s advancing to this point doesn’t have as much to do with Atlanta losing the previous series as with the Pacers winning. We’ve been bullish on the Wizards all season long and with the exception of a lackluster stretch in the second half of the campaign while Nene was injured they’ve rewarded us generously at the betting window. The Wizards were 27-17 ATS as an underdog this season and even more impressive they were 10-4 ATS as a road underdog in this price range (+3′ to +6). They were also a very solid 29-15 ATS on the road. Washington has also covered 10 of their last 13 games. Indiana’s pointspread performance has improved somewhat of late but they’ve still lost 11 of their last 18 to the number dating back to the regular season. Indiana won two of three meetings during the regular season but the Wizards have covered 6 of the last 10 head to head including 3 of the last 5 on the road. We love this Wizards team and think they’re still underrated and we’re not sold on the Pacers based on their 7 game win over the Hawks. We’ll bet this game accordingly.
BET WASHINGTON WIZARDS +4 OVER INDIANA PACERS
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS AT OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
From a pointspread standpoint we’re not big on either of these teams at the moment. Both are overrated in the eyes of the general public. The Clippers played well in Game 7 and didn’t look overly concerned about the Donald Sterling imbroglio. Of the two sides they’re more likely to suffer the ‘Game 7 letdown’ than the more playoff experienced Thunder. Can’t really recommend either side in this matchup. Power ratings show a slight lean toward the road team plus the points and the Clippers and Thunder split four games this year during the regular season. If we had to play this game we’d likely take the points but our best recommendation is to ‘pass’ altogether.
PASS
