Recent Play Details

3% Take Brooklyn on the MONEYLINE (#551)

Here’s an excerpt from what I wrote about the Phoenix Suns prior to the last time we bet against them, another loss at home to Cleveland.  Numbers have been slightly adjusted to reflect current realities:

“I’ve been betting against Phoenix with regularity of late, and tonight’s game gives us another prime opportunity to fade the skidding Suns.  Monty Williams squad has lost three straight and 12 of their last 14 of their last nine, including their last four at home.  They’re 6-18 SU since the beginning of December – steady losers; a lottery bound squad these days, not a championship contender.  Their lone All Star, Devin Booker, is out long term, and the Suns are just 3-13 SU without him this season.  They’ve scored 106 or less in each of their last eight losses, not getting good looks at the hoop on a very guardable squad.  Phoenix is a lottery team right now – a ‘dead’ team here, midseason, and yet the betting markets have been slow to adjust.  Let’s take advantage again! 

While the Suns are a clear ‘bet-against’ team without Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, Josh Okogie and Cam Payne in the lineup tonight, the Nets have urgency tonight despite their own injury issues without Kevin Durant.  They’ve lost three straight since Durant went down, after going 8-19 last year without him, including a low energy effort at lowly San Antonio on Tuesday. 

But the Nets should get Kyrie Irving back in the lineup here, jumpstarting their offense.  And this quote from Brooklyn big man Nick Claxton speaks volumes about what we can expect from the Nets moving forward until Durant returns: “Last year…it was kind of a toxic environment (with James Harden as the team leader once Durant went down).  We didn’t know if everybody wanted to be here at the time.  This year, there’s no divide between everybody that’s out there.  We are going to figure it out.”  They’ve got the right motivation and the right opponent to ‘figure it out’ tonight. Take the Nets on the MONEYLINE

Line Parameter: 3% at -140 or lower, 2% at -141 or higher