Handicapping the NBA playoffs means that sports bettors have plenty of opportunities to earn big money. Sixteen teams compete for the NBA championship. Each series can go a maximum of seven games. That’s a lot of opportunity, but bettors should approach the postseason differently than the regular season. 

Key Points

– Handicapping the NBA playoffs takes time, effort, and a good strategy.

– Avoid betting like the public on NBA playoff games.

Sports bettors face several significant obstacles during the playoffs, including harder-to-beat point spreads, challenging over/unders, and potentially significant home-court advantages. Here are some suggestions for making playoff predictions. 

There is one that you might want to try for the NBA’s second season even though the majority of betting strategies seem to be hit or miss. The Zig-Zag System recommends betting on the team most likely to avenge a loss in the following game. 

So, a team that just lost is more likely to come back and win the next game. That is the thought anyway. It is anticipated that they will be extremely motivated to make up for the previous loss.

This theory might sound absurd, but over the course of 15 playoff seasons, it has gone over .500 by more than 100 games. In handicapping the NBA playoffs, It is among the more trustworthy betting systems available. 

Zig-Zag theory can be risky for the sports bettor that uses it without considering matchups or common sense in terms of injuries, depth, and talent. It can be very helpful when two teams are very evenly matched in terms of talent and matchups or when a team genuinely wants revenge. 

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The NBA playoffs are a completely different animal than the regular season. That makes using regular season stats for the playoffs problematic. Public bettors will tend to do just that. Don’t bet like the public. It often makes sense to fade the public come NBA playoff time.

In the playoffs, the best of the best compete against one another. The magnitude of each game draws the best out of many of the top stars in the league. It can also be too much to handle for some young players. Keep that in mind when looking for NBA playoff opportunities.

For the wise sports bettor, a few factors that are typically ignored during the regular season become crucial during the playoffs. The public line adjustment is one. The public loves favorites and top teams. Sportsbooks know that and bake that into their lines. It’s even more defined in the postseason because more casual bettors will wager on these games. 

In the playoffs, talent is crucial, but some NBA teams with the right combination of players and leadership can get by with less. They can still extend a series to five, six, or seven games. Some professional basketball teams simply advance and defeat much better opponents in their second season. 

Bettors can win when they watch for line changes. Lines can be changed for one of two reasons: either there are too many bets on one team or a player’s status has changed. It is typically the former during the postseason. 

If you are able to discern why the line shifted, you can use it to your advantage. The move might be due to other circumstances – like sharp money – which smart bettors can use to gain an advantage over the public.

Each team has an established team philosophy that can withstand coaching changes and adjustments during the postseason. An NBA team may adopt a particular system or style of play, but it may need to be changed.

The team may have had significant injuries, some strange matchups, or they were just plain desperate. Some coaches will drastically change a team’s style of play by benching certain players and relying on other players who have filled supporting roles. 

All of these types of changes need to be taken into account when handicapping the NBA playoffs. 

Finally, there are current trends versus playoff trends in the past. Statistics about home games, teams that win the first game of a series, and teams that have dropped the first three games of a series are frequently mentioned. 

Be cautious when using these historical trends. You have to figure out when a new trend is being established and what it truly means. Will the trend continue?  

Remember, all NBA playoff series are best-of-seven. Some teams have the firepower to go seven games. Others don’t. Anything can happen too. Lower-seeded teams often get hot at the right time. As a bettor, take as much into account as necessary to make sound NBA playoff betting decisions.

Every sports bettor should approach the NBA playoffs as the intense second season that it is, Every team will put everything on the line and unlikely heroes may emerge. You can win money handicapping the NBA Playoffs if you accurately assess each and every game, look for any trends, and consider any changes.