How Sharps are Betting Celtics/Cavs, Mavs/Thunder (5/7)
Will Drained Dogs be Ready for Rowdy Series Openers?
Last two games of the NBA’s second round openers are on the slate tonight. Will be hard to top Monday night’s mayhem. Maybe road underdogs Cleveland and Dallas have some surprises up their sleeves. (Or, maybe they’re too tired from first round challenges to remember where their shirts are).
Let’s see how sharps (professional wagerers) have been betting these games so far. As always, we’ll take ‘em in tipoff order.
Cleveland at Boston (7 p.m. ET, TNT)
Opening line of Boston -11 sat for a very long time. That tells us sharps didn’t like the Celtics at that price. Even with a big rest advantage and a great defense facing a potentially exhausted offense…not even quants were laying -11. The public sure did! Recreational bettors were happy to lay the lumber, ultimately driving the stale opener to -11.5, -12, and its current -12.5. No resistance yet. Though, eventually dog lovers will see a number they can’t resist. Could turn out that +12.5 is it. Nothing wrong with waiting a little while to see if +13 becomes available.
There are old-school sharps who will take double digits on principal in any playoff game. We talked about that last round when they lost with that approach on Miami. This feels very much like a series most sharps wanted to stay away from. Few Wise Guys are comfortable laying this many points. Apparently, many dog lovers learned through the regular season that Boston loves running up the score.
As I write this…there isn’t yet a sharp side. Public likes Boston at -12 or less. Dog lovers will eventually show us what number caused them to bite.