Bet NBA Playoffs – When To Zig And Zag
It is very difficult to keep an elite athelete or team down and as this online sports betting NBA playoff season continues and people bet Kentucky Derby online, hoop bettors should be aware of how powerful teams came be after losing a game.
An immediate clue as to how this theory works, was displayed last Saturday in Portland.
Brandon Roy, who has been playing hurt all season with a bone on bone situation in both knees, went public after logging limited minutes in the first 2 games of the series.
The former All Star said he almost cried when he was on the bench because of his limited minutes and he took the issue to his coach and the media.
So what happened Saturday?
Portland erased a huge deficit to outscore the Dallas Mavericks 35 to 15 in the fourth quarter to win by a bucket with Roy orchestrating the victory.
In a sports betting bonus, he came off the bench to score a point a minute in his 24 moments of action, pulled down 4 rebounds and handed out 5 assists in almost single handedly beating Dallas.
As far as teams are concerned, the concept is that in a short series when if you lose you go home, a team is more inclined to play very good after a losing game than it is to continue its losing efforts.
Marc Lawrence of VegasInsider showed his insight into this trend last week and it’s time to pass it on.
He calls these games Zig Zags and he put out some very clever stats to back up this trend as he listed the point-spread results on those kind of NBA Playoff games from 1991 through 2010.
Game on
- Overall: 642-566-29
- Game Two: 156-133-12
- Game Three: 169-127-4
- Game Four: 133-132-5
- Game Five: 90-100-5
- Game Six: 62-53-1
- Game Seven: 23-21-2
Lawrence went on to show that overall Game Three was the most potent play and when you narrowed it down, there were cases where a bettor could really put things in his corner.
When home teams were limited to 75 or fewer points in Game Twos, their collective blood boiled and those teams went 13-2 in that important next game of the series.
He also analyzed Zig Zag situations round by round.
Round ‘em up
- Round One: 303-261-14
- Round Two: 194-174-7
- Round Three: 96-90-6
- Round Four: 49-41-2
These stats suggest that the biggest profits using this angle came in Round One, where all teams have a glimmer of winning the championship.
When a team in Round One really got crushed and lost by double digits, they were especially mad in that next game.
In those situations, teams were 85-58-5.
Players also have to know that in recent years, the number has been adjusted as the Zig Zag moves became evident so you just can’t play these games without doing your due diligence.
When betting on the NBA at this time of the year, players have to be very aware of what happened in the previous games and any TV time available to watch every minute of the playoffs will be rewarded in the wallet.


