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Sharp Bettors Heavily Backing One Side in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals

The Hawks have stolen yet another Game 1 on the road, but sharp bettors aren't so sure Trae Young has another Herculean performance in store. Michael Walton reports on the betting market for Game 2.

Michael Walton

NBA Odds: Hawks vs. Bucks

Hawks Odds +8
Bucks Odds -8
Over/Under 225
Time | Channel 8:30 p.m. ET | TNT

The Atlanta Hawks have been impressive, overachieving underdogs all season long. Since they switched head coaches — moving on from Lloyd Pierce to Nate McMillan — the team has been on an incredible run that has stretched all the way into the postseason.

Atlanta stole Game 1 in Milwaukee behind a stellar 48 points and 11 assists from superstar point guard Trae Young. He controlled the tempo and dominated the Bucks by simply taking exactly what the defense gives him.

Young has done most of his work on offense with his floater. He has attacked Milwaukee’s drop coverage in the pick-and-roll and went at their perimeter defenders one-on-one.

Game 1 was a weird game in the sense that both teams shot below 30% from 3-point distance despite being very good shooting teams. You can expect those percentages to trend closer to their season averages soon, which could spell big trouble for Atlanta.

The Hawks have already done the hard part, which is stealing Game 1 on the road, something Atlanta has improbably done three times this postseason.

But it can’t be ignored that the Hawks won by a mere three points despite the Herculean effort from Young. Sharp bettors clearly took note of this as well, and are showing that they expect Game 1 to be an outlier performance from Atlanta by backing the Bucks in Game 2.

Let’s take a look in our latest PRO Report.

NBA Picks: Hawks vs. Bucks

Sharp Action

The line for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Bucks and Hawks opened up at Milwaukee -7 before it was pushed up to -8 ahead of the action.

Since Thursday morning, there have been seven Action Labs Bet Signals triggered on Milwaukee. This is a surefire sign of sharp bettors flocking to back the Bucks as the home favorite.

PRO Systems 

Friday’s Game 2 of the Eastern Conference fits into the Action Network’s “NBA Playoffs: More Money on Favorites PRO System“, which has a 61% win rate and a 19% Return On Investment (ROI) since 2015.

PRO Report Pick: Bucks -8 (-105) at PointsBet