The first night of NBA action was quiet. Boston blew out New York and in the process it tied an NBA record for most made 3-point attempts in a game (29). Los Angeles beat Minnesota and held them at arm’s length the entire night.
Home teams went 2-0 SU and ATS and totals split the evening. The home team results stick out, only due to the amount of home underdogs tonight. Ten games are on the schedule tonight and seven teams are favored on the road. A two-game sample size is not worth anything, but homecourt has been somewhat diminished the last two seasons. Monitoring how these home teams fare both tonight and moving forward will be interesting.
As far as tonight is concerned, only one best bet will be in the column this evening. The truth is, I have quite a few bets this evening, but many were made in the weeks leading up to the regular season. Hopefully the CLV works in my favor, but that wasn’t the case last night when I had over 218.5 in a game that closed 224 but went under every number.
Remember, you can track the results in the column throughout the season here.
NBA Best Bets for Wednesday, October 23rd
Golden State Warriors at Portland Trail Blazers
Golden State showed some really impressive play on the defensive end in the preseason. They limited opponents to 96.1 points per 100 possessions. Their new lineup with both Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga on the floor is versatile on defense. Those two – along with Draymond Green – can defend multiple positions and switch on most screens. The Warriors should create a lot of problems for the Trail Blazers’ offense, which projects to be one of the worst in the NBA once again.
Portland was the worst rim shooting team in the league last season (60.3%). The addition of Deni Avdija should improve the team’s offense overall, but this group looks like one that will be reliant on mid-range jumpers to go down. Given the Warriors’ ability to defend, the Trail Blazers put forth a great offensive performance by hitting contest jumpers with consistency throughout the evening. If that beats me, so be it.
This all to say, I believe Golden State can cover this number. Over the last three seasons six is the most common outcome in the NBA. It already was a relatively key number to begin with. The Warriors can defend at a high level, and have the ability to go at Trail Blazers defense which has some poor defenders and lacks a true option to follow Steph Curry on the floor. I’ll lay it with Golden State on the road.
Best Bet: Warriors (-5.5)
Likes & Leans
Cleveland Cavaliers at Toronto Raptors
This was going to be a best bet for Wednesday, but the number has moved quite a bit from the open I bet a couple of weeks back. Still, it would be Cavaliers or pass for me here. RJ Barrett, Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown are all out for the Raptors. Cleveland has the defensive pieces to match up with Scottie Barnes and the ability to press a defense which projects to be a subpar unit. Laying six or less with the Cavaliers would be the way to go here.
Lean: Cavaliers (-6) or better
