Vegas Play of the Day: Detroit Pistons at Los Angeles Lakers

By Case Keefer (contact)

Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017 | 1:37 p.m.

We’ve entered the fourth season of the annual South Point-lined Play of the Day competition, effective July 1.

Starting bankrolls have reset to $10,000, with the maximum bet being to win $1,000 and the minimum wager $300. Ray Brewer won back-to-back titles in the 2015-2016 and 2016-17 seasons, after Taylor Bern prevailed in 2014-2015.

Los Angeles Lakers plus-4 vs. Detroit Pistons: $440 to win $400

Two weeks into the NBA season, many have declared the Pistons among the most surprising teams and are ready to put them in the upper half of the Eastern Conference. Let’s slow down a bit.

Detroit has played well, yes, but seven games into the season is still too early to glean too much information about a team. My hunch is the Pistons are still closer to the team everyone thought would battle for a playoff spot in the preseason than one that could be fighting for home-court advantage in the first round.

As impressive as a pair of wins over the Clippers and Warriors were within the last week, they are ultimately just that — a pair of wins. There’s a lot of volatility in a random two-game sample.

And it’s also notable that those two wins took a lot of energy in back-to-back nights just two days ago. A third game in four days is never beneficial.

The Lakers aren’t great, but they’re good enough to take advantage of this spot.

Current Standings: Granger (8-8, $11,575), Keefer (11-11-1, $9,571), Brewer (12-11, $9,530), Grimala (5-6, $8,715)

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.