The Lede: Durant Out Indefinitely
Don’t have time to read through 1,000 words, but need some informed betting tips? Here’s a quick rundown on today’s biggest sports story, and how it impacts the way you should bet. Missed yesterday’s? See it here.
Kevin Durant Diagnosed with a Sprained MCL
Kevin Durant exited last night’s game against the Wizards early in the first quarter after teammate Zaza Pachulia fell backwards into his left leg. Golden State announced today that Durant is out indefinitely with a sprained MCL, and is expected to miss at least four weeks. This is actually good news for the Warriors as the injury was feared to be much worse. Golden State’s last regular season game is scheduled for April 12, so there is a chance KD could return before the playoffs.
How should this affect your future betting strategies? There’s no doubt losing a player of Durant’s caliber is going to be detrimental. The former MVP leads Golden State in scoring, rebounds, and blocks. But let’s remember, it was a KD-less Warriors team that won 73 games last season. Of course, Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes, and Marreese Speights all played crucial roles on that 2015-16 team.
Without Durant in the lineup, Golden State may struggle even more on the glass when trying to play small. There will also be a lot more pressure on Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to score. Fortunately for the Warriors, their next two games come against the Bulls and Knicks. But they also have two meetings with San Antonio before the end of the month, and the Spurs only trail them by four games for the top seed in the West. If there was a time to sprinkle money on San Antonio, it’s now. I wouldn’t abandon the Warriors title ship yet, though.
After working in TV, Matt turned his focus towards numbers, specifically odds. He has been with us since 2016 and serves as SBD's Editor-in-Chief, credited with creating our futures trackers, SBD's score predictor, SBD Sharp, and his own model for calculating NFL SOS, among other products.
