Basketball Parlay of the Day: Thursday, February 14th
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.
While tonight offers one of the smallest NBA slates in the past few months, there are a ton of games on the college side we can turn our attention to. Personally, I can’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s Day than hunkering down on the couch and betting on a full slate of college games! (special shoutout to my lady for being the ultimate team player)
If you want to get in on some individual action across the board on top of a nice little basketball parlay, I suggest checking out fellow Fantasy CPR writer John Fazio’s NCAA Basketball Best Bets to Win series for some top notch insight.
Otherwise, without further ado, let’s break down tonight’s basketball parlay!
Basketball Parlay of the Day
- HOUSTON COUGARS (-8) vs CONNECTICUT HUSKIES
- NEW YORK KNICKS vs ATLANTA HAWKS – OVER 224
- OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER (-4) vs NEW ORLEANS PELICANS
- SAINT MARY’S-CALIFORNIA GAELS vs SANTA CLARA BRONCOS (+10)
Total Payout: +1260 (odds vary based on individual books)
HOUSTON COUGARS vs CONNECTICUT HUSKIES – 7:00pm ET
The #9 ranked Houston Cougars come into a road matchup with UConn scalding hot. Sitting at 23-1 on the year with a lone loss to a very respectable Temple team, the Cougars are making a strong push to secure either a 2 or 3 seed come the NCAA tournament.
The Cougars have a very well-rounded offensive attack stacked with key veteran contributors. However, the Cougars make a name for themselves on the defensive end of the ball and only allow an absurd 60 points per game. While they don’t offer elite rim protection, their guards do a great job at creating pressure on the perimeter while their bigs do a fantastic job at providing reliable back line help. Moreover, they rotate VERY well on the defensive end and rarely give up an uncontested look.
Offensively, the Cougars are led by the veteran 3 headed guard attack of Corey Davis Jr. (a reliable primary scoring option), Armoni Brooks (a secondary scoring outlet with plus rebounding), and Galen Robinson Jr. (quarterback of the offense). However, they get key contributions defensively from bench players. Particularly from Brison Gresham, who averages 1.5 blocks per game in just 14 minutes.
UConn on the other hand has been struggling recently. Bitten hard by the injury bug, the Huskies are down star players Jalen Adams and Alterique Gilbert. Junior Christian Vital has stepped up and at least helped the Huskies create some offense in the absence of their two stars, but Vital is much more of a pure shooter who needs playmakers around him to get the most out of his skillset.
Since the loss of Adams and Gilbert, the Huskies have looked lost at both ends of the court. Not only has their scoring taken a drastic dip, but defensively the Huskies are struggling to figure out rotations with two major absences. In short, the Huskies we have seen over the past 2-3 weeks are far from the same team we saw to start the season.
At the end of the day, if the Huskies were to have any shot of keeping this game close against a LOADED Houston squad, they need a roster at full strength. Unfortunately, they come into the matchup with a bad limp and shouldn’t have the roster depth or talent to remotely compete with the Cougars.
Basketball Parlay Pick: Houston Cougars (-8)
NEW YORK KNICKS vs ATLANTA HAWKS – 7:30pm ET
While the two teams have met three times on the year already, they haven’t played since December and the Knicks are basically an entirely different basketball team after the trade deadline.
Since moving on from Tim Hardaway Jr. and letting Dennis Smith Jr. run wild, the Knicks have upped their scoring considerably. In fact, they have broken the 100 point threshold in back to back games against above average defenses (the Knicks hadn’t even posted back to back 100 point games since January 21st and 23rd). While they still don’t play much defense, the fact remains that the offense is undoubtedly more dynamic following the trade deadline.
Speaking of offense, the Hawks tend to only care about putting the ball in the basket and do so at one of the league’s best clips. Although they play some of the worst defense in the league, their raw PPG allowed average is a bit deceiving given the insane pace of play the run at. All that said, whenever the Hawks take the court, expect both teams to put up numbers well into the 100 point range.
Trae Young has been wildly inconsistent this year, but when at his best, has shown flashes of being an incredibly dynamic scorer and playmaker. John Collins also continues to develop nicely and has taken a major step forward in regards to his scoring on the year. Collins and Jones play very well together and most of Young’s assists come off easy looks for athletic young big man.
We aren’t going to overthink this one all that much. The Knicks are scoring better than ever and so are the Hawks. Neither team plays great defense and the Hawks are going to push the pace HARD. The Knicks aren’t good enough to control the pace of the game and should be easily lured into a high-scoring shootout.
Basketball Parlay Pick: OVER 224
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER vs NEW ORLEANS PELICANS – 8:00pm ET
To put it simply, the Thunder have been SCALDING since mid-January. Boasting the 3rd best defensive rating in the league to go with the 5th best scoring differential in the league, the Thunder are taking care of business at both ends of the floor right now. Outside of a close loss on the road to the Celtics, over their past 10 games the Thunder have blown every other team they’ve faced out of the water.
Although Russell Westbrook has been stealing headlines for his incredible run of triple-doubles, the real hero for the Thunder has been Paul George. An unselfish compliment to Westbrook, George has done an excellent job at playing off the ball to get easy looks from Westbrook while at the same time offering the Thunder a go-to scorer when the game slows down and gets ugly (because as we all know, Russell isn’t much of a shooter these days). Steven Adams also may be the most underrated big man in the NBA. A master of doing the dirty work that doesn’t show up in the box score, Adams is instrumental in getting George and Westbrook easy looks (while also boxing out opposing bigs so Westbrook can pad his rebounding numbers).
Even with Anthony Davis now back in the mix for the Pelicans, the team has looked like an absolute mess. It doesn’t help that Davis has posted two consecutive uncharacteristically bad games, but it goes to show how heavily reliant the Pels are with AD in the lineup. Failing to break 90 points in their last two games (both blowout losses), the Pelicans are lacking the elite offense they use to help offset their porous defense. Jrue Holiday has played well regardless of if AD is in the lineup or not, but he alone is not nearly enough to power the Pelicans to victory.
Despite being on the road in this matchup and giving a heavy spread, I can’t help but see this game going the route of another blowout. The current starting lineup the Pelicans are rolling out has a ton of size, but outside of Holiday and Davis offers ZERO defensive resistance. The Thunder are an extremely athletic bunch and the Pelicans should have a tough time chasing George in particular around the court. Even if Davis does go off, expect the Thunder defense to hold the rest of the team in check while piling on bucket after bucket in a runaway victory.
Basketball Parlay Pick: Oklahoma City Thunder (-8)
SAINT MARY’S-CALIFORNIA GAELS vs SANTA CLARA BRONCOS – 11:00pm ET
Saint Mary’s has quietly had a very solid season in the WCC (and has worked their way into a regular spot in my Underdog Picks and Basketball Parlay series). Sitting at 6-4 so far in conference play, the Gaels have been consistently above average all year long. A quintessential gatekeeper, the Gaels have struggled mightily against better teams, going 0-4 when considered the underdog by Vegas oddsmakers. However, they tend to beat up on the weaker teams they face. Outside of a rough 4 game stretch involving Utah State, Mississippi State, Harvard, and UCI; the Gaels have been fairly consistent on the year.
The Gael’s offense comes almost entirely from Jordan Ford and Malik Fitts. Ford puts up an absurd 21.6 points per game and is the primary catalyst for the Gael’s attack. Meanwhile, Fitts provides an athletic big body capable of knocking down the deep ball at a respectable clip. Not to be overlooked, center Jordan Hunter compliments Fitts very well on the boards and offers a very reliable safety outlet near the rim, knocking down 60% of his looks. Listed at 6’10, Hunter towers over most bigs in the WCC and uses his size very well.
Despite being blown out of the water by 20 points on the road last time the Broncos faced the Gaels, Santa Clara has taken major strides in recent weeks and seem to be rounding into a very decent basketball team. After a nice upset win on the road against Pepperdine (where your’s truly was in attendance), the Broncos dropped a heartbreaker on the road against USF. While they don’t truly excel on either side of the basketball, Santa Clara is a team that makes fantastic mid-game defensive adjustments to keep them competitive.
Tahj Eaddy has come back down to earth for the Broncos but is still their most talented scorer. In the midst of a brutal shooting slump however, the Broncos have seen a number of role players step up to help fill the void. Josip Vrankic has stepped up HUGE in the past few games and while he lacks pure athleticism, he is a lanky stretch 4 with great natural basketball instincts. Josh Martin struggles a bit on the offensive end, but he is a bundle of energy on the court and is instrumental in helping the Broncos control the boards.
All that said, the player I have sneakily been most impressed with is freshman Guglielmo Caruso. While his season averages aren’t eye popping, Caruso has played himself in the rotation to close out games and seemingly comes up with a massive basket or clutch rebound whenever the Broncos need one. In terms of impact plays down the stretch over the past few games, arguably no player has had a greater impact.
While Saint Mary’s is probably the better team on paper and has by far the more ferocious 1-2 punch, the Broncos are a much more well rounded basketball team and have looked drastically improved over the last few weeks. After a string of road games, the Broncos are happy to be heading home and will be looking to avenge a 20 point blowout. Expect them to more than just cover this 10 point spread and actually have a good chance to pull out the upset
Next. DFS NBA Top plays and fades February 14. dark