GAMBLING GUIDE

Bookie Busters: All aboard the money train

Bookie Busters: All aboard the money train
Get on that money train. Getty Images

Gambling is about situations. Picking a favorable one regarding the team you are backing is one of the many aspects of winning.

Remembering a situation that has happened before and seeing it again, can serve as the caution needed to approach a particular bet.

This past weekend the situation was that the books had been getting beat up, and all you heard all week was the gibberish about Vegas losing historically. So what comes next?

A clean house by the books where they torched the public. The Bookie Buster family went down with the ship. Remember these situations, and let the moment happen on its own when need be.

Sometimes the best bet is no bet.

Last week's article

Hoffenheim TT Over 2   3U MAX
Game over 3.5 1U -1.3
UPDATED *:57 CST
LEICESTER CITY VS BURNLEY LEICESTER -1 3U MAX  -4.5
TT over 1.5 5U MAX   -6.2
Game over 2.5 -3.9
UPDATED 10:45 CST
Germany
Dortmund/Bayern
Dortmund +.5 2U  +2
BTTS and over 2.5 5U MAX   +5
Netherlands
PSV TT over 2.5 MAX5U  +5
Game over 3.5 2U
UPDATED 11/11
Liverpool -1 first half Push
first half over 1.5 -1.5
NFL SUNDAY
Pats-6.5 -1
Lions+7 -1
D.Johnson Jr pass receptions over 4½ -160 5U MAX -5.7
T.Smith scores a receiving TD 1U +250 -1
A.Jones receiving yards over 10½ -110 3U  +3
Jones TD +125 1U  +1
J .Graham pass receptions over 3½ 3U  -3.8
Scores TD 1U +155 -1
D.Lewis receiving yards over 34½ 5U MAX   -5.6
D.Lewis pass receptions over 3½ 5U MAX  -5,6
SNF 7:11 CST
W Smallwood over 1.5 receptions 3U  +3
First H 1U 19.5 +1
under 20.5 +1
Eagles over 13.5 TT over first half 5U total of the    -5.5
Eagles live+3.5  -5.5
Eagles -4.5 game 5U   -5.5
Man City +5
Northwestern +10 +5
Utah-4  +5
Mia/GT  Under +5
GB TT over +3
Teasers -8
Giants +3
Barkley -2.9.
Sheppard -2.9
Western Michigan TT over 14 2nd half   2U +2
GS/ATL under 101.5 first half 2U  +2
Durant double double   2U -2.2
ATL second half +10  Push
Packers Over -5.3
GB TT O +5
Oak/LAC over -5.2
Seattle TT over +5
Over 56.5 live +5
Colts/Jags -3.3
Browns over -3.3
Pats -7 2nd half -3.3

-26.8

Last weeks article read 236.5       236.5 -26.8 =   +209.7U

Always prepare for the ups and downs.

New Plays

Blazers vs Lakers

Over 226.6    1U

UPDATE  1:04 PM  CST

Spain/Croatia  BTTS   3U

 

TNF   6:46 CST

GB/Sea Over 49 5U MAX

Seattle TT over 26 5U MAX

Seattle TT first half over 13.5 2U

 

J.Graham pass receptions over 3½ 2U

scores TD 1U +170

Wilson over 225.5 Passing yards 5U

NBA

Durant Over 30 points 5U MAX

 

UPDATE   8:54n CST

Seattle 2nd half TT over 13.5 -120  5U MAX

3rd Q over 9.5  5U MAX 

Seattle ml 2nd half -122   ( so +4 for game)  5U

 

 

For any questions or comments reach me @JerryBoKnowz Twitter.

Be sure to check out my show MoneyLine with Josh Jordan on ESPN 97.5. We’re on every Sunday from 10-noon, and we’ll talk a lot of fantasy football and NFL gambling. Also, be sure to follow us @Moneyline975 on Twitter.

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The Thunder beat the Rockets, 111-96. Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images.

It was midway through the third quarter of the Oklahoma City-Houston NBA Cup semifinal matchup on Saturday night. Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had just made a short jumper in the lane and, to his delight, a time-out was immediately called.

He needed it.

He retreated to midcourt, crouched down, propped himself up by his fingertips and took deep breath after deep breath. It was that sort of night. And given the way the Rockets and Thunder have defended all season long, such a game was predictable.

In the end, it was Oklahoma City 111, Houston 96 in a game where the teams combined to shoot 41%. The immediate reward for the Thunder: two days off to recover. The bigger reward: a matchup with Milwaukee on Tuesday night for the NBA Cup, with more than $300,000 per player the difference between winning and losing.

“That's what defense does for you,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, whose team has held opponents to 41% shooting or worse a league-best 11 times this season — and is 11-0 in those games. “It keeps you in games.”

The Rockets-Thunder semifinal was basketball, with elements of football, rugby, hockey and probably even some wrestling thrown in. It wasn't unusual. It's how they play: defense-first, tough, gritty, physical.

They are the two top teams in the NBA in terms of field-goal percentage defense — Oklahoma City came in at 42.7%, Houston at 43.4% — and entered the night as two of the top three in scoring defense. Orlando led entering Saturday at 103.7 per game, Oklahoma City was No. 2 at 103.8, Houston No. 3 at 105.9. (The Thunder, by holding Houston to 96, passed the Magic for the top spot on Saturday.)

Houston finished 36.5% from the field, its second-worst showing of the season. When the Rockets shoot 41% or better, they're 17-4. When they don't, they're 0-5.

“Sometimes it comes down to making shots,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Especially in the first half, we guarded well enough. ... But you put a lot of pressure on your defense when you're not making shots.”

Even though scoring across the NBA is down slightly so far this season, about a point per game behind last season's pace and two points from the pace of the 2022-23 season, it's still a golden age for offense in the league. Consider: Boston scored 51 points in a quarter earlier this season.

Saturday was not like most games. The halftime score: Rockets 42, Thunder 41. Neither team crossed the 50-point mark until Dillon Brooks' 3-pointer for Houston gave the Rockets a 51-45 lead with 8:46 left in the third quarter.

Brooks is generally considered one of the game's tougher defenders. Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the game's best scorers. They're teammates on Canada's national team, and they had some 1-on-1 moments on Saturday.

“It's fun. It makes you better,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That's what this league is about, competing against the best in the world and defensively, he is that for sure. And I like to think that of myself offensively. He gives me a chance to really see where I'm at, a good test. I'd say I handled it pretty well.”

Indeed he did. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 32 points, the fifth instance this season of someone scoring that many against the Rockets. He's done it twice, and the Thunder scored 70 points in the second half to pull away.

“We knew that if we kept getting stops we would give ourselves a chance,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “And we did so.”

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