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David Purdum, ESPN Staff Writer
The Nets‘ approach to resting Mikal Bridges while keeping alive his consecutive games streak turned into an edge for savvy bettors Wednesday and caused sportsbooks to abruptly halt betting on the Brooklyn star.
Sportsbooks took down the betting options on Bridges’ statistics, including points, rebounds and assists, within approximately 90 minutes after the Nets announced that three starters would be rested Wednesday against the Bucks.
Bridges, who owns the NBA’s longest consecutive games streak, and Cam Thomas were the only regular starters not listed on the injury report released at 1:30 p.m. ET.
The over/under on Bridges’ points (21.5), rebounds (4.5) and assists (3.5) were in line with expectations that he’d play a full game. Bettors, however, recalled a similar scenario in a Bucks-Nets game last March in which Brooklyn rested multiple starters and played Bridges only the first quarter, at least in part to keep his streak intact.
Bettors believed Bridges would be similarly limited against the Bucks on Wednesday and rushed to sportsbooks to bet the under on his statistics — and they were right: Bridges played only the first quarter, finishing with six points, three points and one assist.
“I saw that the Nets were resting everyone, and I knew that Bridges had the iron man streak of consecutive starts going, and we had seen this in the past with the Nets,” Danny Komendera, a 29-year-old bettor and content producer from Illinois, told ESPN. “I just thought it was an opportunity. I decided to tweet it out, because I think this is an edge, but obviously didn’t realize at the time how significant it could’ve been.”
Noah Zwit, a 24-year-old avid sports bettor from Illinois, said he learned of the potential edge around 2:15 p.m. ET and had enough time to place multiple same-game parlays featuring the unders on Bridges points, assists, 3-pointers and rebounds with ESPN BET. He shared a screenshot of a $1,000 parlay that would’ve paid nearly $61,000 but lost by one Bridges rebound.
Zwit said he won $22,000 on his other parlay involving Bridges.
“He was the only starter listed as active,” Zwit told ESPN. “We were hoping he was only going to play a minute or two. [I] got unlucky with that rebound.”
A spokesman for PointsBet (Fanatics) said Bridges’ odds were up only briefly and that the book took minimal action on them. At Draftkings, however, the odds were up long enough to make Bridges’ the second-most heavily bet player on Wednesday’s six-game NBA slate, behind only Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris.
The over/under on Bridges’ points at BetMGM opened at 21.5 and attracted lopsided action on the under. A spokesperson for BetMGM told ESPN that 83% of the bets on Bridges’ points were on the under. FanDuel also reported the majority of the action on Bridges’ points was on the under. At DraftKings, 91% of the money bet on Bridges’ rebounds was on the under.
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn cited his team’s recent schedule when explaining the decision to rest players and also mentioned Bridges’ consecutive-games streak, which extended to 423 straight games.
“Let’s be upfront and honest; he has a streak going on that he doesn’t want to end,” Vaughn said. “So that’s understandable, but at the same time I treat each guy on an individual basis.”
When informed of Vaughn’s postgame comments about his streak, Bridges told the New York Post: “I guess for their purposes is why. But I’m healthy, so I [don’t] see why I wouldn’t play.”
“The streak is, I guess, for everyone else to talk about,” Bridges told the Post. “But I don’t just get in there for the streak. I get in there to play the game and because I want to go out there and win. I don’t go in there to just sub in, get the streak and whatever. I just want to play.”