NBA Multi bet of the Weekend | Jan 26

There is no shortage of NBA action this Sunday, with all but two teams taking to the floor across the USA and, for the second time this week, Paris. The Spurs and the Pacers kick things off once again in France at 4am AEDT, acting as the starting point for more than 12 hours of virtually non-stop basketball. There are plenty of quality games throughout the day, too; straight after the Paris game, the Nuggets face the Timberwolves and then the Celtics host the Mavs, while later in the day the Rockets take on the Cavaliers, the Lakers face the Warriors and the Bucks host the Clippers. With so many games there is plenty of betting opportunity, so take a look at our day’s multi below.

Sunday 26th of January, 7am AEDT, Target Center

If there are any superlatives that have not yet been said about Nikola Jokic, I’m not aware of them. No disrespect to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but that the Serbian is paying $4 to win this season’s MVP is extraordinary, and his historic offensive exploits only seem to be getting more ridiculous. On the season the three-time MVP is averaging 30.2 points on 56.4% shooting from the field and an absurd 47.9% from three, as well as 13.4 rebounds and 10.1 assists. In his last game, he stuffed the stat sheet like a Christmas Day turkey, racking up an incredible 35 points on 19 shots, 22 rebounds and 17 assists. That was a particularly outlandish stat line, but it’s not all that unusual for a man who is increasingly putting his name in the ring as one of the best centres in the game’s history. That triple-double – a feat he achieved early in the third quarter – was his fifth in a row. Even more amazing than that, however, is that it was his 9th in his last 11 games, and in each of the two games that he didn’t get there he was just a solitary assist shy. He is accumulating triple-doubles for fun at the moment, but betting sites are still offering close to even money odds for him to do it in this one. That sounds pretty good to me. This looks like a great way to start off our weekend multi.

Sunday 26th of January, 9am AEDT, Barclays Center

This is the second time this week we’re going to jump on Kel’el Ware, but why change a winning formula? The rookie has taken the league by storm over the past few games, joining Bam Adebayo in a two-big starting lineup that has seen Ware’s productivity improve massively. After playing between 15 and 20 minutes per game over the early parts of the season, he has now played at least 34 in three games on the trot, and he has repaid coach Erik Spoelstra in spades. He has scored at least 20 points in each of those games and picked up a decent number of rebounds too, and while NBA betting sites have adjusted to this new role, his over/under numbers are still a little below what he has been putting up lately. You could back his points or rebounds in this game and it would probably be a decent bet, but given they both look good, the points + rebounds is an even safer way to go about things. Betting agencies have set his line for that market at around 27.5, very high compared to his season averages of 8.2 points and 4.5 rebounds but pretty comfortably below what he has put together since moving into a larger role. In his last three games, Ware has accumulated points + rebounds totals of 33, 35 and 32, and there is no reason to think that he will not once again get to a similar number in this game. That gives us a reasonable buffer over the betting line, and makes this a nice second leg for our multi.

Sunday 26th of January, 10.30am AEDT, State Farm Arena

Speaking of players in different roles – and players who we bet on earlier in the week – let’s talk Onyeka Okongwu. The first round pick from a few years ago has spent his NBA career behind Clint Capela in the Hawks’ estimations of their centres, but some quality play this season of late has seen him slotted into the starting lineup. His minutes have not changed dramatically, but he has received a bit of extra playing time each game and has been making the most of it. Okongwu has started three consecutive games and played really well in the three before that, and over that six-game stretch has averaged an impressive 16.2 points and 13 rebounds per game. He has had a double-double in four of those six games, and in one of the two that he didn’t he had 14 points and 9 rebounds, and in the other he had 9 points and 10 rebounds. Basically, he is either getting there or only just missing out, but as is often the case this change in role has still not quite been adjusted to by the bookies. He is paying basically even money to hit that double-double mark, which considering that 16-point, 13-rebound average over six games now is some very juicy odds. Jakob Poeltl will be his opposing centre for much of this game, and while he’s not a bad player, he’s hardly the most imposing opponent Okongwu has ever faced. There is no reason that Okongwu will not once again receive close to 30 minutes in that game, and that should make him far more likely than not to record another double-double to hopefully round out our multi with a win.