The Pelicans lost Sunday night dropping my best bets to 27-13 (67.5%) on the season. After a rare off day yesterday, I am looking to get back into my winning ways tonight.
Best Bet: Rockets (+17) @ Nets $$
This is the highest point spread I recall seeing this entire NBA season. Lines this big are typically reserved for college games where there are dramatic talent gaps between teams. While it would be difficult to argue the Rockets are as talented as the Nets, we are still talking about a professional NBA team from Houston. The talent gap in the NBA is not generally as wide as most people would think.
I know Brooklyn has Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving who are both capable of putting up 30 points any game they want. But as we saw recently, that may not be enough. Durant scored 55 points in their game last week against the Hawks and they still lost the game.
The real problem with the Nets is that they cannot play defence. To cover this huge spread tonight, the Nets may need to score 135+ points. Even if Irving and Durant combine for 80 points, they still need to find 55 more from the rest of the team. I am not comfortable with that proposition. We have to look at the Nets critically as a team that likely will not even make the playoffs. In order to do so, they may need to beat both Atlanta and Charlotte in the play-in. I do not like those odds.
The Rockets may not be a good NBA team, but I would not rate them as the worst in the league. I can see them jacking up enough points to at least get this cover tonight.
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