There were three significant upsets on Wednesday in the National Basketball Association. The Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets all lost on their home court, when they were all clearly expected to win.
The Celtics were nine point favourites against the Detroit Pistons, but ended up losing 116-103. Four Pistons players reached 20 points in scoring. Sekou Doumbouya, the 19 year-old Pistons rookie from Guinea, led Detroit with a career high 24 points. Markieff Morris scored 23 points off the bench and 2011 NBA MVP Derrick Rose scored 22 points. Ukranian small forward Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk also had a career high in points as he scored 21, and Andre Drummond had a double double as he had 13 points and 13 rebounds.
With the win, the Pistons improved to a record of 15 wins and 27 losses, while the Celtics dropped to a record of 27 wins and 12 losses. After winning their first 10 games of the season at TD Garden, the Celtics have now only won six of their last 10 at home according to ESPN.
In Houston, the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Rockets 117-107 when they entered the game as an 8.5 point underdog. The Trail Blazers two biggest stars were the ones who came up big in this one as Damian Lillard had 25 points and CJ McCollum had 24 points. Hassan Whiteside and Carmelo Anthony each had double doubles as Whiteside had 18 points and 18 rebounds, and Anthony had 18 points and 12 rebounds. Portland improved to a record of 18 wins and 24 losses, while Houston dropped to 26 wins and 14 losses.
Finally the biggest upset of the night came on the west coast when the Los Angeles Lakers lost 119-118 to the Orlando Magic despite being 10 point favourites. The Magic had six players in double digits in scoring as Aaron Gordon and Markelle Fultz led the way with 21 points each. Fultz in fact had a triple double as he had 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
It should be noted that the Lakers were without Anthony Davis, but were still favoured with LeBron James on the floor. Orlando improved to a record of 20 wins and 21 losses and Los Angeles dropped to 33 wins and eight losses.
Moral of the story is it is extremely tough to bet on the NBA. I have tried to do it, and even went down to Vegas to try and lost money.
