Basketball Playoffs Betting Heavily Favors the Magic

January 19th, 2024 Live NBA Betting Lines

Basketball Playoffs betting favors Orlando at home on Wednesday as they host the Charlotte Bobcats in Game 2 of their series. The Magic are expected to win this series since they are the defending Eastern Conference champs.  NBA betting trends also favor Orlando in this game that can be seen on TNT.

Basketball Playoffs betting odds point to Orlando in this series.  In the regular season the Magic had won 11 of their last 13 against Charlotte.  The problem for Charlotte in this matchup has been containing Orlando center Dwight Howard.  Not many teams can contain the All-Star but Charlotte really has matchup difficulties. “Everybody knows what Orlando does,” Bobcats coach Larry Brown said. “They just do it so well.”

Charlotte had their first winning season in 2009-2010 so they may be happy just to be in the playoffs. Orlando wants a title and anything less will be a disappointment. “I wasn’t happy last year,” Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said. “I wasn’t at the end. I wasn’t happy because we were there and had an opportunity and didn’t play well. I think the way we’re all made up is anything short of winning it and we’re not going to be happy.”

If Charlotte is to win in basketball playoffs betting they will need Stephen Jackson to play well. He leads the Bobcats in scoring. “He’s changed the whole mentality of that team,” Orlando’s Matt Barnes said. “It’s going to be a great battle to try to slow him down. He’s definitely the leader of that offense. I’m going to do my best to slow him down and get him out of rhythm.”

Before this series began, the Bobcats were 0-3-1 vs. the NBA betting point spread in their last 4 games as an underdog.  The Bobcats are 3-7 ATS in the last 10 meetings in Orlando. On the other side, Orlando was 4-0-1 ATS in their last 5 home games.  And the Magic has been a solid favorite, going 20-6-1 ATS in their last 27 games as a favorite.

Before this series, seven of the last nine Charlotte games had gone under the total.  Orlando had gone over in four of their last five. At home though, the Magic had gone under in 10 of their last 15 and in this series, six of the last eight at Orlando had gone under the total.

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