One Prop Bet, Spread Pick for Phoenix Suns-Memphis Grizzlies
The Phoenix Suns play host to the Memphis Grizzlies tonight.
Here's one pick for the spread and one prop bet:
"While the overall percentages don’t jump off the page Ja Morant has improved the diversity of his jump shot quite a bit. He used to shoot pretty much a set shot and almost exclusively off the catch, easy enough for a rangy defender like Mikal Bridges to bother on an aggressive closeout. But Morant has started to mix in a deeper bag of 3-point attempts this season, including step-backs and pull-up 3-pointers off the dribble. The difficulty and frequency of his attempts have grown, masking what are significant improvements in his overall shooting ability.
"Still, teams are going to dare him to shoot as the best of bad options. Teams including the Phoenix Suns. The key thing is that we’ve just seen exactly how Phoenix will play against Morant. They are going to go under every Adams screen, do their best to close the gap, and dare Morant to hit jumpers.
"In their previous game on January 16, Morant hit five of his eight attempts. I’m not banking on him being quite that hot, but Morant knows this is a shot he has to shoot to keep defenses honest. Even when he’s missing as he did against the Lakers, he still managed to fire off six attempts.
"This time, the Suns are on a back-to-back, which means that all of their closeouts are likely going to be just a little slower, giving Morant the edge to cash this prop."
"Without their big three of Chris Paul, Deandre Ayton, and Devin Booker, the Suns came away victorious against the Indiana Pacers last night, winning 112-107 at home. Indiana is still missing star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, and the Pacers have been ice cold over the last two weeks.
"Phoenix is 3-1 ATS over its last four games, but that trend is a bit misleading. The Suns covered against Indiana, Minnesota, and Brooklyn in those three games, but in their last two games against teams at full strength, the Suns lost by 29 to Denver and 30 to Memphis.
"The Suns are playing the second game of a back-to-back set, so there’s a good chance Paul and Ayton sit again. The Grizzlies are 11-7 ATS as the road favorite this season, and they should have no problem covering against Phoenix’s skeleton crew in the desert. DraftKings is offering this one at -9 with -115 odds, so we’ll avoid that book, but all of our other featured books offer this one at -9.5 with -110 odds."
