Basketball Parlay of the Day: Wednesday, February 6th
By Anthony Koon
Disclaimer: Every basketball parlay in this series is going to be a simple 4-legger. A 4-leg basketball parlay is RISKY so approach with caution and avoid tossing full unit bets on these picks.
For those of you new to the “Parlay of the Day” series, welcome! The goal here is to set you up with the best 4-leg basketball parlay across the NBA and NCAA basketball games for the evening.
Last night’s parlay only went 2-2 across the board thanks to an incredibly flat Syracuse start and a tough late game foul with .01 seconds on the clock that let the Grizzlies sneak away with one late. That said, bad beats are bound to happen when it comes to gambling and things always tend to regress to the mean.
Without further ado, let’s get back on that horse and dive into today’s 4-leg basketball parlay following our standard format of two NBA and two NCAA games!
Basketball Parlay of the Day
- George Mason Patriots (-1.5) @ Richmond Spiders
- Baylor Bears (+2.5) @ Texas Longhorns
- Washington Wizards @ Milwaukee Bucks – OVER 230
- Houston Rockets @ Sacramento Kings (+2.5)
George Mason Patriots vs Richmond Spiders – 7:00pm ET
George Mason is simply my team this year. For some reason, the books tend to undervalue the Patriots while they continue to either outright win games, or push more talented opponents to the brink.
The veteran back-court duo for the Patriots of Otis Livingston III and Justin Kier are battle tested and unfazed by any team that they line up against. Although the saying is more geared towards tournament play, experienced and solid guard play is more often than not the key factor to collegiate success.
Meanwhile, Richmond has been atrocious on the year so far. Although they did pick up a nice win over St. Louis, the fact remains that since the Spiders have entered conference play, they’ve absolutely tanked.
Richmond likes to slow the game down in order to control the pace of play. The only problem with this so far is that the defense simply isn’t consistent enough to make this a feasible game plan. Richmond has a serviceable offense with two legit offensive weapons in Grant Golden and Jacob Gilyard, but the production falls off hard when the Spiders go to the bench.
George Mason has been a team I’ve ridden hard all season and I see no reason to buck that trend as they face down an inferior and reeling Richmond squad. Look for the perennially underrated Patriots to continue their winning ways on the road.
Basketball Parlay Pick #1: George Mason Patriots (-1.5)
Baylor Bears vs Texas Longhorns – 8:00pm ET
This goes against every fiber in my being to bet on a Baylor squad (irrational hate from the RGIII days but that’s neither here nor there), but the fact of the matter is that Baylor is playing some of the flat out best basketball in the nation at the time of this writing. Meanwhile, Texas has come crashing back down to earth following their hot start.
Baylor hasn’t just been winning games against quality opponents, they’ve been utterly demolishing everything in their path.
During their recent hot streak, they beat an incredibly tough Texas Tech defense by double digits and nearly beat a very good TCU squad by 30 points. Defense has been their calling card on the recent run, but the offense has also looked fantastic, especially against Texas Tech’s vaunted defense.
Makai Mason and Tristan Clark give the Bears a reliable inside-outside threat and run out a deep supporting case alongside the two filled with talented shooters. While the offense will look to primarily run through those two, the Bears are an unselfish bunch and happily move the ball to find the best look as evidenced by them ranking in the top 1/3rd in the nation in assists per game.
I’ll spare the gory details on the downfall of Texas, but the cliff notes version is they simply can’t find a way to close out games. Texas has a few quality wins under their belt (most recently against Kansas), but have found themselves on the losing end of multiple closely contested affairs in conference play.
Kerwin Roach II is one of the lone bright spots in this dark time for Texas basketball and looks to potentially have a future in the NBA.
A versatile and athletic combo guard, Roach plays with an extremely high motor and is great at finding his way to the basket for easy buckets. That said, his shooting is fairly streaky and he simply isn’t a complete enough player to will Texas to victory consistently late in games.
While the road has been unforgiving on the year so far, I feel fairly confident taking one of the hottest teams in the nation going up against a Texas team that just looks lost on most nights. Look for Baylor to come out with another lock-down defensive performance en route to a comfortable win.
Basketball Parlay Pick #2: Baylor Bears (+2.5)
Washington Wizards vs Milwaukee Bucks – 8:00pm ET
I touched on this in a previous article, but one of the more interesting aspects of this Wizards team is the fact that since Wall went down, they don’t necessarily have a style of play that they try to establish. Instead, they get lured into playing their opponent’s game plan more often than not.
With the exception of their recent match-up against the Pacers (the game covered in the previous article), the Wizards have faced mostly high-octane offenses and have been up to the task of at least scoring enough to cover the over.
Despite working with one of the worst defenses in the league, Bradley Beal is having a career year and is basically the reason why the Wizards are even able to find themselves competitive in most games. Thomas Bryant has also filled in admirably in the absence of Dwight Howard and gives Beal a reliable big body down low to play off.
On the other hand, the Bucks are just really, really good. The boast one of the most dynamic and deep offenses in the league and have only been held to a sub 100 point game twice on the year. This article wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the absurd play of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the impact he has on both sides of the ball.
However, Giannis is far from the only weapon the high-flying Bucks team enlists. Surrounded by reliable 3-point shooting play-makers in Khris Middleton and Malcolm Brogdon, the Bucks thrive at using Giannis to collapse a defense before kicking out to a wide open sharpshooter beyond the 3 point line.
Going back to the trend of the Wizards playing to the tempo of their opponent, the Bucks are going to try to go out and score the ball as much as humanly possible. Look for Beal and co. to put up a valiant effort and do enough on the Wizards side to make sure that even if the Bucks (by some miracle) don’t drop 130, the over still hits.
Basketball Parlay Pick #3: OVER 230
Houston Rockets vs Sacramento Kings – 10:00pm ET
Our final parlay match-up of the day features an incredibly exciting showdown between James Harden (because let’s be real, Harden is the only reason the Rockets aren’t chilling with the Suns at the bottom of the west) and the upstart Sacramento Kings.
I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about the run Harden is on recently. Chances are if you’re reading this article about betting on basketball, you’re probably fairly plugged into the basketball world and are aware of his ungodly play.
Outside of Harden, Chris Paul is back for the Rockets again and while he hasn’t yet looked like the Chris Paul of old, that was to be expected considering he needs to get his game legs back under him.
The Rockets are the definition of streaky right now but do have some quality wins over the past few weeks. They are heavily reliant on Harden’s scoring and struggle in games where he has failed to break the 40 point threshold.
Over time Paul should help to even out that load and provide some backup, but for the time being the Rockets need a superhuman effort from Harden to keep them in games.
On the flip side, the Kings seemingly get a clutch performance from a different player each night. While De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield give the Kings a consistent effort on a nightly basis, role players like Bogdan Bogdanovic, Marvin Bagley III, Willie Cauley-Stein, and even Harry Giles have been consistently providing a 3rd scoring option for the Kings night in, night out.
While the Kings are likely not going to have an answer for Harden, they do pose a difficult match-up for the Rockets given the fact that since Clint Capela went down, the Rockets have lacked any sort of front-court presence. The Kings have a plethora of young and talented big men that should be able to dominate the glass and bully the undersized Rockets down low.
Look for one of Bagley, Cauley-Stein, or even Giles to exploit that mismatch and give the Rockets a handful. Harden is going to get his without a doubt, but the Kings are rolling and have the match-up on paper to give the Rockets hell.
Next. NCAA Basketball Best Bets to Win Feb 6th. dark