NBA 5/5/26
San Antonio Spurs -6 for 2 units
San Antonio Spurs first half -3.5 for 0.5 units
San Antonio Spurs to win NBA Championship +115 for 2 units
Just for the record, the line was -6 (-108) at my casino and by the time I refreshed the line in the parking lot it was -5.5 (-114).. darn! But interestingly enough, I may have been sucked into buying the hook at -5.5… Old me thought five was a key number in the NBA. I don’t believe there are key numbers anymore in the NBA, especially playoffs after my data of past couple seasons. If there was one, it may be 7 in the playoffs/ 5 in the reg season? Idk. Anyway, I also wasn’t sucked into considering betting the Spurs -230 on the moneyline bc that weight is so heavy - although I think there’s a really high probability they win game 2.
This reminds me of when I bet Oklahoma City at home in game two. While it is early in the series, this is an absolute must win for San Antonio. The Knicks did their job and stole a game, I know how amazing they are playing, and they even got more shots up than the Spurs in game one – but I had told myself I wasn’t touching game one when I thought it was going to be Thunder versus Knicks, once that was not the matchup, I predicted (to myself and in discussions) Spurs would probably win by 1 to 5 in game one and didn’t wanna touch it with any hard-earned dollars. ATS, I really may have gone Knicks though. But I knew if Knicks won game 1, the series price would flip and you wouldn’t have to lay 2:1 for Wemby to win his first (of maybe many) rings.
After the emotions of the game seven win against the Thunder, with Knicks waiting (and after the last long wait, they had the terrible start against Cleveland game one - weren’t going to do that again)… there were too many things lining up for the Knicks a good game one and Spurs to potentially have a little flatness. Game 1’s result doesn’t surprise me at all.
And onto game 2, the Spurs seem to start strong in these desperation moments, so that’s where my logic on a little bit of sugar on the first half bet comes in to play, and going ATS for the game - bc that’s what you’re supposed to do (so my data says) when you like this team to win. I do have a small victory covered with the series bet exposure.
Just for the record, now that New York stole game one – I believe it goes: Spurs win games two and three, New York wins game four. Then home court holds throughout the final 3 games and Spurs win in 7. There will be opportunities to revisit this as the series progresses, but Jalen Brunson did get a little banged up last night for a moment there right? In this scenario - game 3 will be a classic I’m thinking - but game 6 might be of the best games in NBA history with Knicks winning on a final shot, etc, to force the game 7.. but then Spurs would win game 7 by 5-10 points and it wouldn’t be a final bucket game.
Any way you cut it, sports fans are in for a very interesting series with two talented squads. Good luck everybody and Go Spurs!
