Bet on Basketball – Hawks at Magic Game 1

In what appears to be a one-sided series, the nine-point favorite Orlando Magic host the Atlanta Hawks tonight at 8:00 PM ET at Amway Arena in Game One.

NBA Betting Odds:

• Atlanta Hawks +9
• Orlando Magic -9
• O/U 191.2

The Magic completely dominated the Hawks in the regular season and will try to do the same to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Despite that Atlanta won on the opening day of the 2008-09 season by 14 points, the Magic have won six of the last seven, including victories by margins of 17, 18, 32 and 34 points.

The problem for Atlanta will be stopping Dwight Howard inside the paint. NBA betting fans should realize that there is no one on the Hawks’ roster that could prevent “Super Man,” and if you consider all the crying he did in the series against the Bobcats, I’ll bet the referees will be giving him more breaks than usual.

Atlanta needs to control the pace of the game as Joe Johnson and Josh Smith match up pretty well on the perimeter against Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis. However, they will probably face a mismatch on the lower part of the floor as Mike Bibby needs to stop a red hot Jameer Nelson, who averaged 23.8 points in round one of the playoffs.

Basketball betting fans must remember that Bibby was outplayed by Brandon Jennings in the series against Milwaukee, as he was a complete nightmare for the veteran and Nelson could be a similar one in this matchup.

Consider that ATLANTA is 5-18 ATS in away games in the playoffs and 6-10 ATS vs. division opponents. But they were money in the regular season, recording a 51-37 ATS overall record, including 3-0 ATS as a road underdog of 6.5 to 9 points.

The Magic, on the other side, are 4-1 ATS when playing with 3 or more days rest and 5-2 ATS on Tuesday night’s games.

Keep in mind that 8 of 12 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons.

My pick: 9 points are hard to cover in the playoffs, take the Hawks and the points. >> JOIN NOW