NBA Thursday Recap Odds: A Night for Outright Dogs
Knicks, Mavs Score Big Road Wins
Market Underdogs Provide Strong Returns
It was a night for the underdogs in the NBA as four plus-money teams recorded outright wins on an interesting six-game slate. Let’s take a look at the NBA Thursday Recap Odds and see how the market performed across the league.
The New York Knicks were big winners on the road against the league-leading Boston Celtics. The Celtics rallied late to tie the game at 110-110 and force OT, but New York’s defense found its composure in the clutch and held on for a 120-117 win as 8.5-point underdogs.
The Knicks closed at +285 on the Moneyline, making them the biggest underdog winner of the day. The total saw plenty of steam to the Under as the market closed at 220.5 points after opening as high as 226.5 points in some spots. Both teams shot well early and a late push from the Celtics to force OT proved a tough hammer blow for the Under bettors.
Meanwhile, Luka Doncic was forced to leave the game in the first quarter for the Dallas Mavericks but that seemed to spark a response from the road team as they escaped with a 99-95 win against the Phoenix Suns.
The Suns were 1.5-point favorites but once Doncic was ruled out for the game they were as low as -450 on the Moneyline as they opened up a 9-point lead in the opening quarter. The Mavs responded well to tie things up before the end of the first period before taking a six-point lead into the half.
Dallas never trailed in the second half as they snapped their poor road run against a team that they’ve built up some bad blood with in recent meetings. Phoenix was the best value team to bet on according to NBA Sagarin Ratings and the manner in which they lost would’ve left bettors feeling very frustrated.
Pistons, Hornets Pull Off Unlikely Wins
The Detroit Pistons were outright winners as 8.0-point underdogs on the road to the Brooklyn Nets as they took advantage of a nice schedule advantage.
The Nets were playing the second night of a back-to-back as they returned home from a tough five-game road stand. Detroit hadn’t played in a couple days and the difference in effort and hustle was evident from the opening tip.
Detroit never fell outside the spread and comfortably covered the number as they secured just their 13th win on the season.
The Charlotte Hornets are currently just one game better in the win column as they notched their 14th win of the season at home to the Chicago Bulls.
The Bulls are now 0-6 ATS as road favorites this season as the team’s poor efforts against bottom-teams continues to plague them. Chicago led by double-digits midway through the third quarter, but a 14-1 run by the Hornets saw the assume control.
LaMelo Ball and Gordon Hayward were late inclusions, which was a big reason why the Hornets went from +6.0 to +3.5 by tip-off.
Rockets, Spurs Continue to Slide
Two underdogs who didn’t come close to sniffing upset wins were the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs.
The Rockets were 113-95 losers at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers as they played their second of a back-to-back. Donovan Mitchell was ruled out for the road team but they made light work of their tanking opponents, opening up a 26-point lead by half-time.
Despite the Cavs scoring 74 points in the first 24 minutes of action, things slowed down in a big way in the second half and the full game stayed Under the closing number of 217.0 points.
The Spurs were also on the second of a back-to-back as they took on the Clippers for their second straight game in LA.
The Clippers closed as 13.5-point favorites and never looked phased by a Spurs team that was showing early signs of fatigue and a clear lack of effort on the defensive end of the floor.
The 138-100 win was the biggest margin of victory for the Clippers this season as they continue to show clear signs of improvement with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George back on the floor together on a consistent basis.
Full game totals went 3-3 on the night and continue to perform at a near 50% rate on the full season.
That’s all for our NBA Thursday Recap Odds. Be sure to check out our NBA today predictions in our NBA Friday Matchups preview.
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