{"id":11862,"date":"2018-12-31T18:46:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T18:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bb-auae-prd-ext-blog-01.azurewebsites.net\/more\/nba-new-years-betting-preview-1-january-2019\/"},"modified":"2023-06-28T09:31:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T09:31:28","slug":"nba-new-years-betting-preview-1-january-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/nba\/nba-new-years-betting-preview-1-january-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA New Year’s Betting Preview – 1 January 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memphis Grizzlies at Houston Rockets<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The Grizzlies (18-17) run into the red-hot Rockets (20-15) in a Western Conference matchup.<\/p>\n

After a strong start to the season, Memphis have slumped badly, dropping six of their last eight games. J.B. Bickerstaff\u2019s team are coming off a 112-103 home loss to the Celtics on Sunday (all times AEST).<\/p>\n

The Griz remain second in the league in points allowed (102) and will look to shut down James Harden, something no team has done in December.<\/p>\n

Harden has been on an absolute tear of late, scoring 30-plus points in 11-straight games and becoming the fourth player to score 500 points in a month.<\/p>\n

The Beard has led the Chris Paul-less Rockets sensationally, who have won nine of their last 10, including four-straight, the equal best streak in the league.<\/p>\n

Last time these teams met in Memphis earlier this month, Houston won 105-97.<\/p>\n

Tip: <\/strong>Houston -3.5 @ $1.70<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Boston Celtics at San Antonio Spurs<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The Celtics (21-14) travel to San Antonio (20-17) as two of the league\u2019s perennial top dogs go head-to-head.<\/p>\n

Boston have started to come into their own after a slow start to the season, winning three of their last four contests. Kyrie Irving continues his MVP calibre-season, and his health holds the key to the C\u2019s post-season aspirations.<\/p>\n

This team looks much better with Al Horford back in the fold, who missed seven-straight games with a knee injury.<\/p>\n

San Antonio have also got it together of late, earning victories in nine of their last 12 games, including wins over the Lakers, 76ers and Nuggets.<\/p>\n

You can never count out Greg Popovich\u2019s team, who are 15-3 at home and coming off a massive 122-11 win against the Clippers in LA on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Tip: <\/strong>San Antonio to win @ $1.92<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dallas Mavericks at OKC Thunder<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The Mavs (17-18) visit OKC (22-13) in a rematch from their clash in Dallas on Monday.<\/p>\n

Rick Carlisle\u2019s team took the honours after Dennis Smith Jr. converted a clutch layup and Russel Westbrook missed the potential game-winning three.<\/p>\n

Paul George lit it up for the Thunder in this one, dropping a game-high 36 points, while Luka Doncic was equally impressive for his game-high 25 points.<\/p>\n

But OKC at Chesapeake Energy Arena are a whole different beast, where they have only dropped four games this season.<\/p>\n

Dallas have impressed as one of the most improved teams this season, but it is hard seeing them winning this one in the fortress of Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

Tip: <\/strong>OKC to win @ $1.29<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memphis Grizzlies at Houston Rockets The Grizzlies (18-17) run into the red-hot Rockets (20-15) in a Western Conference matchup. After a strong start to the season, Memphis have slumped badly, dropping six of their last eight games. J.B. Bickerstaff\u2019s team are coming off a 112-103 home loss to the Celtics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[706],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15952,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11862\/revisions\/15952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}