If there were any doubts, former Toronto Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo publicly acknowledged that tanking has occurred in the NBA. Colangelo admitted to a crowd at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on Friday in Boston that he attempted to tank during the lockout-condensed 2011-12 season.
This season, a recent run by NBA favorites against the spread suggests there is a widening gap in effort level between teams fighting for playoff position and those in the tank.
Ahead of tonight's action, favorites have covered the spread in 56.7 percent of games since the All-Star Break, including an impressive 34-18-3 ATS (65.38 percent) run over the last eight days.
“We’ve been getting crushed this past couple weeks,” Jeff Stoneback, assistant manager at the MGM Mirage, said. “But, really, NBA has been pretty successful for us this year. We realize the players are going to win sometime and we’ll have to start giving it back.”
According to Nevada Gaming Control, sports books are up $20.9 million through the first three months of the basketball season. That figure includes both the NBA and college basketball.Stoneback said the recent run by favorites hasn’t gotten to the point where books will take drastic measure -- bumping up point spreads and reducing limits -- but the last couple of weeks have been rough. In the meantime, they’ll try to do their best to attract action on teams like the Philadelphia 76ers, who went off as 21-point road underdogs against Oklahoma City on Tuesday. The Thunder covered in a 125-92 rout.
“The first bet we took was $10,000 on the Thunder,” Stoneback said an hour after opening OKC -20 Tuesday morning.
For our full NBA betting preview for Wednesday, including leans on the Pacers at Bobcats, head over to The Linemakers on Sporting News.
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