Sam Panayotovich
FOX Sports Betting Analyst
Now that the Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic have officially punched their tickets to the 16-team playoff field, the NBA postseason can begin for real.
Play-in, schmay-in.
I’ll admit, it’s exciting that we no longer need to monitor which superstars are taking nights off for load management or which bum teams do and don’t care about the day-to-day basketball grind. Thank goodness.
Here are seven NBA betting thoughts heading into Round 1.
Whew, the Celtics and Thunder are expensive!
In terms of series prices, Boston is as high as -6000 in Las Vegas to advance past the Magic in the opening round. So, you’ve got to lay $6,000 to win $100, something I wouldn’t advise, no matter how free a space it seems. Oklahoma City isn’t as expensive against Memphis, but -4500 is also steep.
LeBron James can be beaten early in series
When I was a young reporter in Chicago, I covered a few Bulls’ playoff series against King James and his teams lost Game 1 three times. It’s probably not fair to say LeBron doesn’t prioritize a series opener, but he’s 31-23 all-time in postseason Game 1s. Michael Jordan (27-10) would never! It’s much more difficult to dethrone King James the deeper a series goes, but I was happy to bet some Minnesota Timberwolves +5 in Saturday’s premiere.
…and so on
