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NBA best bets and analysis for Tuesday, November 21st
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Best Bets
Record: 22-13 | Units: +8.16u | ROI: 21.71%
Portland Trail Blazers at Phoenix Suns (-12.5, 229)
When Phoenix defeated Utah on Friday night – courtesy of a 3-point make with 18 seconds left from Kevin Durant – Frank Vogel expressed his joy at the Suns still being alive in the In-Season Tournament. Phoenix has been one of the many teams that has been vocal about their determination to win the first ever NBA Cup. It could be a league dictated vocalness, or perhaps the team really does want to win this thing. If we believe in the latter, then bettors can expect a massive effort from Phoenix tonight.
The Suns are 1-1 in group play of this tournament, and as of Tuesday they sit two spots out of the wild card for the knockout stage with the Jazz and Nuggets ahead of them. The win over Utah gives them the head-to-head tiebreaker, and in order to give themselves the best chance at making it in would be point differential, something Vogel expressed to his team on Friday night. Bettors saw this in action on Friday when Sacramento scored a bucket in transition with no time left despite having the game in hand. They wanted to maximize the points needed if their fate came down to the tiebreakers. Phoenix is in a tremendous position to add to their differential tonight against Portland.
The Trail Blazers are 0-7 SU/2-5 ATS in their last seven games. They have been outscored by 14.9 points per 100 possessions during this slide, and they are 21st in defensive rating (117.0). Portland is also beleaguered by injury, and Malcolm Brogdon is questionable to play once again tonight. The Trail Blazers will have few answers for the Suns’ duo of Durant and Devin Booker, and the Suns will be motivated to win by margin tonight in order to improve their odds of making it into the knockout stage of the tournament. Let’s take a shot with this and lay the wood with Phoenix at home.
Play: Suns (-13) – Playable up to (-13.5)
Best Bets
Suns (-13)
