Best Bets: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to light up the scoreboard v. Bulls tonight

This will be a semi-daily post for our CHGO Diehard. For a full introduction to who I am, check out my most recent post on Andrew Vaughn.

I want to start sharing these picks mainly to track my record. My strategy for 2023 is to place one bet at one unit ($10) each day.

The record starts today at 0-0. Let’s try to go above .500 this year!

Betting Pick of the Day – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander over 30.5 points (-105)

“People find some reason to believe”, Bruce Springsteen penned in “Reason to Believe” off his 1982 album, Nebraska. I believe this bet will hit because it is a new day and any day is a good day to bet.

“Players win and winners play. Have a lucky day”, Mark Sandman penned in “Have a Lucky Day” off Morphine’s 1992 album, Good. I believe this bet will hit because my job is to play the betting markets.

For the record, for every loss, I blame my Swedish-German roots on my dad’s side, because clearly, my mom’s pure Irish roots can not be the problem.

My easiest bet of the most recent vintage was Donovan Mitchell o30+ points back on January 3rd v. the Bulls. Mitchell scored 71 points that night.

Shai has put up 30+ points in 24 of his 37 games this season and back on November 25th, 2022, Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 30 v. the Bulls.

In the past ten games, five guards (Mitchell, Tyrese Maxey, Kyrie Irving, Caris LeVert, and Seth Curry) have put up 20+ points vs. Chicago. Those five guards shot 65/103 (63.1%) from the field, 22/46 (47.8%) from three, and went to the line about 7.5 times per game.

Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the many physical, attacking, point players who have drawn 15+ foul shouts v. Chicago this year and I expect SGA to exploit this weakness again.