The NBA restart got underway July 30, which is great news for NBA bettors. With each team playing eight ?seeding? games to finish the regular season, there will be plenty of opportunities to find value wagers.
Bettors should be careful though as a number of factors will affect NBA betting for the remainder of the season, the play-in tournament, and the postseason.
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Home-Court Advantage
With all the games held inside the NBA bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, the home-court advantage is thrown out the window.
Philadelphia, which will be completely healthy for the first time this season, had the NBA?s best record at home at 29-2. Dallas had a better road record (21-12) than home record (19-15). Neither matters now with all NBA teams playing on one of three courts in Orlando.
COVID-19 Testing
Bettors will have to stay on top of any coronavirus testing news. The league is testing players daily and, so far, they have had zero positive tests among players and staff.
What would throw bettors for a loop would be an MLB-like coronavirus situation. In baseball, the Florida Marlins had a total of 18 players test positive for the virus. That led to the postponement of several games while the players quarantine.
This Week?s Betting Scene | Aug. 2, 2020
If an NBA player tests positive, he must quarantine for 14 days. If a key player is out for two weeks, that will surely impact betting picks.
Rest and Recovery
Quite possibly the biggest factor that will affect NBA betting picks during the remainder of the NBA season, play-in tournament, and postseason is rest and recovery.
For the remainder of the seeding games, teams will play every other day and one day of rest between games. Certain teams perform better than others with just a day off. Milwaukee and Toronto are the two best.
The Bucks went 35-8 winning straight up 81.4 percent of the time after just one day off. The Raptors won 79 percent of the time (30-8) with one day off between games.
The same is true when betting the spread. The Raptors are actually the best team ATS this season when going on one day of rest. Toronto is 25-13 (65.8 percent) ATS in those games.
Oklahoma City (25-16), Indiana (26-17-3), and Boston (24-16-2) are the only other teams with a winning percentage of 60 percent or higher ATS.
The lone day off also plays a role in Totals betting.
Sports bettors looking for Over candidates can look at Miami, Dallas, and San Antonio. Each had the Over hit in over 60 percent of their games played after just one day of rest.
Bettors looking to double up might find the Spurs a great place to start. The Spurs (and New Orleans) had the worst straight up winning percentage (34.2%) and had the worst record ATS (16-24-1) of the 22 teams involved in the restart.
Bettors could also add the Over for a trifecta. Backing San Antonio opponents is the likely way to go now that LaMarcus Aldridge is out for the rest of the season.
The bottom line is NBA bettors need to take these factors - no home-court advantage, coronavirus test results, and rest - into account when placing their bets.
Bettors should be careful though as a number of factors will affect NBA betting for the remainder of the season, the play-in tournament, and the postseason.
ONLINE SPORTSBOOKS OFFER THE MOST COMPETITIVE BETTING LINES
Home-Court Advantage
With all the games held inside the NBA bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, the home-court advantage is thrown out the window.
Philadelphia, which will be completely healthy for the first time this season, had the NBA?s best record at home at 29-2. Dallas had a better road record (21-12) than home record (19-15). Neither matters now with all NBA teams playing on one of three courts in Orlando.
COVID-19 Testing
Bettors will have to stay on top of any coronavirus testing news. The league is testing players daily and, so far, they have had zero positive tests among players and staff.
What would throw bettors for a loop would be an MLB-like coronavirus situation. In baseball, the Florida Marlins had a total of 18 players test positive for the virus. That led to the postponement of several games while the players quarantine.
This Week?s Betting Scene | Aug. 2, 2020
If an NBA player tests positive, he must quarantine for 14 days. If a key player is out for two weeks, that will surely impact betting picks.
Rest and Recovery
Quite possibly the biggest factor that will affect NBA betting picks during the remainder of the NBA season, play-in tournament, and postseason is rest and recovery.
For the remainder of the seeding games, teams will play every other day and one day of rest between games. Certain teams perform better than others with just a day off. Milwaukee and Toronto are the two best.
The Bucks went 35-8 winning straight up 81.4 percent of the time after just one day off. The Raptors won 79 percent of the time (30-8) with one day off between games.
The same is true when betting the spread. The Raptors are actually the best team ATS this season when going on one day of rest. Toronto is 25-13 (65.8 percent) ATS in those games.
Oklahoma City (25-16), Indiana (26-17-3), and Boston (24-16-2) are the only other teams with a winning percentage of 60 percent or higher ATS.
The lone day off also plays a role in Totals betting.
Sports bettors looking for Over candidates can look at Miami, Dallas, and San Antonio. Each had the Over hit in over 60 percent of their games played after just one day of rest.
Bettors looking to double up might find the Spurs a great place to start. The Spurs (and New Orleans) had the worst straight up winning percentage (34.2%) and had the worst record ATS (16-24-1) of the 22 teams involved in the restart.
Bettors could also add the Over for a trifecta. Backing San Antonio opponents is the likely way to go now that LaMarcus Aldridge is out for the rest of the season.
The bottom line is NBA bettors need to take these factors - no home-court advantage, coronavirus test results, and rest - into account when placing their bets.
