MTi Sports NBA Basketball Handicapping Article: The Acela Angle

NBA: The Acela Angle
by MTi Sports

The most talked about road trips among NBA handicappers are the trip through the Texas Triangle of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, the trip through Florida to face the Heat and Magic and the trip through Utah and Denver. However, perhaps the trip with the most interesting and profitable results involves a trip you can take on the Acela, the high speed train that goes between Boston and New York, with the round trip taking under four hours. We call this the Acela Angle.

The Celtics’ and Knicks’ franchises have a wealth of basketball history and success associated with them. They are in the “club” of past NBA champions. As such, these two have a certain amount of respect for each other. This respect is not manifested when they play each other – the respect is apparent when another team is trying to sweep the storied franchises on the road, back-to-back.

It seems as if New York and Boston have a pact – unspoken or otherwise – that no team will sweep them consecutively. If a team beats the Knicks in New York, the Celtics go all out to prevent the 2-0, New York – Boston sweep. Similarly, if a team beats the Celtics in Boston, the Knicks “pick them up” by playing significantly above the linesmakers expectations.

This “agreement” has been going on for quite some time. At the start of this season, the league was 0-9 ATS (-8.4 ppg) since March 6th, 1996 in Boston after beating the Knicks in New York. Similarly, the league is 0-10 ATS (-9.2 ppg) since January 20th 1997 in New York after beating the Celtics in Boston! Each of these has added a winner this season making the former 0-10 ATS and the latter 0-11 ATS. That’s 21-0 ATS combined!

The two actives so far this season were both were double-digit covers. On 11/21, the Warriors were in Boston having beaten the Knicks 108-82 the day before. The linesmakers made the Warriors a double-digit dog, but it wasn’t nearly enough, as the Celtics hammered them 102-85. The next opportunity to play this angle came on 1/15, when the Wizards were off an 88-83 win over the Celtics in Boston. The linesmakers gave the Knicks a chance, making them a slight underdog. New York kept the Acela angle perfect by creaming the Wizards 105-93 – and it wasn’t that close as New York was up by 22 points halfway through the second quarter.

Over the remainder of the season there are four more teams making a road trip that includes consecutive games in New York and Boston. They are listed below, in chronological order:

Remaining Acela Trips 2007-08

LA Clippers: 2/4 A vs NYK, 2/6 A vs BOS

San Antonio: 2/8 A vs NYK, 2/10 A vs BOS

Charlotte: 2/27 A vs NYK, 2/29 A vs BOS

Detroit: 3/5 A vs BOS, 3/7 A vs NYK

According to past results, the play is AGAINST any team in Game 2 if they won Game 1. Once again, the league is a combined 0-21 ATS when they are in New York or Boston and they won in New York or Boston in their previous game.

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