Bales' Best NBA Bets (8/7/20)

Welcome to my newest edition of Bales' Best NBA Bets. In this article, I will outline my favorite bet for August 7, 2020. You can also find all of Bet Karma's staff bets through our NBA Premium Package. 

 

Utah Jazz (+275) vs San Antonio Spurs (-340)

The Utah Jazz will be short-handed against the San Antonio Spurs tonight. Bojan Bogdanovic is out for the season while Mike Conley, Donovan Mitchell, Royce O’Neale, and Rudy Gobert have been ruled out. They’re expected to run a nine-man rotation with Emmanuel Mudiay, Jordan Clarkson, Joe Ingles, and Georges Niang seeing 30+ minutes. 

Niang is an interesting player. He isn’t going to take over an offense and only shoots 43.3% from the field. With that being said, he shoots 38.9% from beyond the arc and 86.4% from the line. He also makes 53.4% of his shots inside the arc but focuses heavily around his three-point shot, which limits his overall field goal percentage. 

In a limited role off the bench, Niang is averaging 14.9 points per-36 minutes. He has seen 30+ minutes in only 1 game the last 2 seasons, scoring 24 points against the Los Angeles Clippers. Similarly to tonight, the Jazz were without a number of players in that contest. Niang has also scored 13+ points in 4 games this season, although he only averaged 18.4 minutes per game in those contests.

The pace in the bubble has increased quite a bit, as both San Antonio and Utah are playing at a faster pace in the bubble than prior to the suspension of the season. The Spurs’ defense has also dropped quite a bit, as they have featured one of the worst defenses in the NBA since the restart. San Antonio has been one of the best teams in the bubble at limiting their opponents’ free throw attempts, but even that has stayed the same as throughout the season. 

Niang has found plenty of success in limited minutes throughout his career. He has multiple ways to score and is efficient when he focuses on more than just his three-point shot. He’s averaging 6.5 points in only 15.3 minutes per game against the Spurs this season, as well. Niang is expected to see 30+ minutes today, and he should see more than enough opportunities to easily hit the over in this play. 

Bet 2 units on Georges Niang over 12.5 points (+102) to win 2.04 units

 

2020 NBA Season Record - 4-6 (+0.75 units)