NBA Betting: Who’s Hot & Who’s Not through 2/28

ATS Power Poll

1: Milwaukee Bucks (38-21 ATS): The Bucks are arguably the hottest team in the NBA right now. Even though their six-game winning streak SU was stopped by the Hawks in overtime in Atlanta on Sunday, their successful ATS run moved to seven games with ease. Not only is Milwaukee back in the playoff picture, but it also shot up to the top spot in the NBA betting power poll as well after being off the radar for the majority of the season.

2: Utah Jazz (36-20-3 ATS): Utah may have leveled off quite a bit in recent weeks, alternating ATS wins and losses in its L/5, but it did post one of the more impressive wins of the week by crushing Houston 133-110 at home on Saturday. It’s not often that you see a team shoot 68% from the floor for an entire game. There’s more from this team coming later…

3: Oklahoma City Thunder (35-23 ATS): A four-game ATS slide finally stopped on Friday with a big win over Minnesota. A 119-99 victory over the Raptors two nights later pushed the streak to two games. F Kevin Durant’s streak of 25+ point performances might’ve stopped against San Antonio, but his Thunder are still a force to be reckoned with in the Western Conference.

ATS Power Outage

1: Boston Celtics (21-35-1 ATS): Congrats, Boston. You successfully unseated the Nets for the worst ATS record in the NBA. Four straight losses ATS dropped the team to just 6-20-1 ATS in 27 games played at Boston Garden this season. The only good bits of news for this team are that the rest of the Atlantic Division is still playing terrible basketball as well, and F Paul Pierce is set to return to the lineup.

2: New Jersey Nets (22-36-1 ATS): The Nets showed a bit of a pulse on Saturday night when they beat the Celtics at Boston Garden. However, Jersey is still just a dismal 6-53 and is still on a reasonable clip to beat or match the 1972 Philadelphia 76ers NBA record for nine wins in a season.

3: Dallas Mavericks (25-34-1 ATS): If the Mavs keep playing like this, they’ll be off of this list in one more week’s time. This is a squad that looks dominant right now, winning seven straight and going 4-2-1 ATS in those seven. Dallas’ new look is going to make it a real contender in the Western Conference this year.

The Good
G Jason Kidd, Dallas Mavericks: Not bad when you can log a triple-double and make one of the headiest plays of the entire season on the same night. Kidd did just that by recording 19 points, 17 assists, and 16 boards against the Hawks, but perhaps his most important play came when he intentionally bumped into Atlanta HC Mike Goodson when he was on the court directing his defense. That’s interfering with the course of play, which warrants a technical foul. The Mavs tied the game and forced overtime, which they went on to win by eight points.

The Bad
The Defense of the Houston Rockets: How many more weeks will the Rockets show up on the wrong side of this list before HC Rick Adelman finds himself in some serious hot water? Houston allowed the Jazz to score 133 points and shoot 68% from the floor in that romp previously mentioned. What made matters worse? Utah would’ve scored a heck of a lot more points if it had shot better than 57.7% from the free throw line…