NBA
Atlanta Hawks @ Houston Rockets:
Houston Rockets (- 3) /// 1.83
Last bet won. And that's the 7th winning bet in a row! Let's keep destroying the bookies! Because they love it. So, a few words about the winning bet on Ja Morant's performance. He's only scored almost as many points as the bookies thought he would score in total (points+assists+rebounds). I don't know what the bookies were expecting. Unless Ja would have gotten 6 fouls somewhere in the 3rd quarter or broken his hand. It's clear to everyone that Ja in Memphis is the main ballhandler, the main offensive player, and his jumper is incredible, which helps a lot to get rebounds. All in all, a total performance: 34 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds! And that's despite Morant's 0 from 5 three-point realization. He should have scored at least 40 points in this game. Well, we say "thank you" to the bookies for the juicy odds of "1.80" and continue betting. The total score of my bets: NBA 23-28 in favor of the unsuccessful, MLB 30-27 in favor of the successful.
New Bet: Houston Rockets at home will beat Atlanta Hawks by 3 points or more. This is the most obvious bet for me today. I'm well aware of when Houston's rebuild started. But even last season and the season before that, when the Rockets were tanking, they managed to beat Atlanta once a season. Now Houston is a solid home team that has played 12 games at home this season and won 11 of them by 3 points or more! They only lost in their 1st game to Golden State. But who has Houston beaten on their home field this season? Two wins over Sacramento (18 and 25 points), two wins over Denver (3 and 19 points), Lakers (34 points), Oklahoma (9 points), New Orleans (3 points), well, and weaker Memphis, Charlotte and San Antonio by more than 3 points. And yes, Houston has only Victor Oladipo among injured players (but he hasn't played yet this season), and Amen Thompson and Jae`Sean Tate - both role players - are questionable. Although, of course, I expect some serious progress from Amen Thompson (since he is 4th pick after all). But Atlanta, I think, has more serious problems with injured players. Jalen Johnson will not play! This is not just Atlanta's starting player, but I would even call him a key player! Thanks in large part to his excellent play, Atlanta beat Milwaukee (14 points, 60% field goal percentage, 7 rebounds, 1 block and 2 steals), Orlando (19 points, 77.8% field goal percentage, 9 rebounds and 1 block), Minnesota (12 points, 71.4% field goal percentage, 5 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal) and New Orleans in the end (21 points, 61.5% field goal percentage and 11 rebounds)! Atlanta has played 11 games without him and lost 8! And without Jalen Johnson they have only beaten outsiders San Antonio, Detroit and 11th place Toronto (and that on the second attempt). And Jalen Johnson 100% will not play against Houston. And also as a bonus: Bogdan Bogdanovic (Atlanta's key role player) is questionable to participate in this game. Atlanta, on the other hand, is a very unstable team right now, losing by a minimum of 6 points on the road. 8 losses in 15 games. And, accordingly, 6 losses in their last 8 away games. But I can't say Atlanta is a bad team. It isn't. Atlanta is a very interesting one! And I'm enjoying the Hawks game, to be honest. Trae Young's basketball aesthetic is incredible! But home Houston is too difficult opponent for Atlanta. Bet? Absolutely!