BIG3 3-on-3 Basketball League Week 7 Betting Odds

–The Big 3 3-on-3 basketball league is the brainchild of rapper Ice Cube.

–The league met with skepticism early on but has done surprisingly well in its debut season.

–The league has averaged around 11,000 fans in every city they’ve hit.

The Big3 3-on-3 basketball league heads to Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky this weekend for a 2 PM tip-off as their season starts to wind down. Last weekend’s card provided at least a short term answer to the question we asked in our preview of Week 6–what was up with all of the blowouts in Week 5? It looks like something of an aberation as Week 6’s games had an average margin of victory of just 8.5 points making it the most competitive card by that metric since the first two weeks of the year. Two of the games were decided by single digits (4 and 5 points) and a third was decided by exactly 10 points. The other game was a 15 point blowout by Trilogy over the Ghost Ballers. Trilogy continues to look like the class of the league at 6-0 with an average margin of victory of 12.33 points.

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS FROM WEEK SIX

First the good news–in addition to the fairly competitive nature of the four game slate the Big3 has to be happy about another very solid crowd. The local media reported a crowd of over 15,000 at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas. Local media can usually be counted on to give a fairly realistic attendance figure since they know what their local arena looks like with a certain number of fans in the seats.

Now the bad news–Allen Iverson was a ‘no show’ for the Week 6 festivities. It wasn’t an ‘excused absence’ or anything–he flat out just didn’t show up. The Big3 honchos didn’t know about it and the fans didn’t find out about it until his ‘3’s Company’ team tipped off with DerMarr Johnson serving as Captain and Coach. Initially, the league announced that they didn’t have any information about the circumstances of his no-show and that they were investigating. Yesterday, AI released a statement that explained little but expressed his remorse over his bad behavior:

“First and foremost, I apologize to Ice Cube & my Big 3 family, my fans and everyone disappointed by my absence in Dallas this past weekend. I have spoken with Ice Cube directly regarding the details of my absence. I will do my best to make up for this moving forward to the Big 3 tour.”

Aside from the downright bizarre tone of what is essentially an ‘excuse note’ addressed to a former member of NWA it provided no explanation of what ‘The Answer’ was up to and why he missed the gig in Dallas. It was apparently enough for Ice Cube who has suspended Iverson for one game. That’ll teach him. It would be interesting to know how AI’s conversation with Cube went since according to TMZ he missed the Big3 card in Dallas due to a gambling binge.

Now I’m not judging the guy–we’ve all been there. I know I definitely have. Iverson was spotted at multiple casinos in multiple cities and would have been described as ‘shutting the place down’ if casinos actually shut down. He was seen at the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, IL at 3 AM on Sunday morning apparently wearing the same clothes he had been seen wearing for the past few days. He finally reappeared at around 10 PM at the Sugar Factory Restaurant in the casino and was again reported to be wearing the same clothes. In defense of AI, he was wearing basketball shorts and a white t shirt. I have a stack of identical white t shirts I wear a lot during the Summer so I’m not about to insinuate that AI had been wearing the *exact* same outfit the entire time he was on his multi-day, multi-city gambling binge.

Anyway, here are the game by game margins of victory/defeat for each team (+ numbers are wins, – numbers are losses):

GHOST BALLERS: -2,+5,+5,-23,+4,-15
3 HEADED MONSTERS: +2,-13,+18,+5,+19,+5
TRI-STATE: -4,-6,-7,+7,-17,-5
POWER: +4,+5,-18,+22,+17,-4
3S COMPANY: +10,-5,-8,-7,-19,+4
BALLHOGS: -10,+6,-5,-7,-17,-10
KILLER 3’S: -15,-5,+7,-5,-4,10
TRILOGY: +15,+13,+7,+7,+17,+15

The next metric we’ll look at is the weekly average margin of victory and how many games were decided by single digits (and presumably competitive):

WEEK 1: 7.75 points (2 single digit games)
WEEK 2: 7.25 points (3 single digit games)
WEEK 3: 9.5 points (3 single digit games)
WEEK 4: 10.25 points (3 single digit games)
WEEK 5: 14.25 points (1 single digit game)
WEEK 6: 8.5 points (2 single digit games)

Here’s the Week 7 Big3 odds:

BIG3 3-ON-3 BASKETBALL LEAGUE WEEK 7 BETTING ODDS

RUPP ARENA (LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY) AUGUST 6, 2017 2:00 PM EASTERN TIP OFF

WEEK 7 BIG3 3-ON-3 BASKETBALL LEAGUE MATCHUPS POINTSPREADS AND TOTALS

3 Headed Monsters: -6.5
Ball Hogs: 94.5

3’s Company: 96.5
Killer 3’s: -4.5

Tri-State: -4.5
Ghost Ballers: 96.5

Trilogy: -7.5 -120
Power: 92.5

WEEK 7 BIG3 3-ON-3 BASKETBALL LEAGUE MATCHUPS MONEYLINES

3 Headed Monsters: -350
Ball Hogs: +270

3’s Company: +150
Killer 3’s: -180

Tri-State: -180
Ghost Ballers: +150

Trilogy: -350
Power: +270

BIG3 3-ON-3 BASKETBALL LEAGUE PROPOSITION BETTING ODDS

Team to win the Big3 3-ON-3 Basketball League Championship?

Trilogy (Kenyon Martin): +140
3 Headed Monsters (Rashard Lewis): +300
Power (Corey Maggette): +400
Killer 3’s (Chauncey Billups): +7500
Ghost Ballers (Mike Bibby): +1250
3’s Company (Allen Iverson): +1250
Tri-State (Jermaine O’Neal): +1500
Ball Hogs (Brian Scalabrine): +1500

Will the BIG3 complete a full season as scheduled?

Yes: -450
No: +370

Will all eight BIG3 teams complete the season?

Yes: -450
No: +370

About the Author: Jim Murphy

For more than 25 years, Jim Murphy has written extensively on sports betting as well as handicapping theory and practice. Jim Murphy has been quoted in media from the Wall Street Journal to REASON Magazine. Murphy worked as a radio and podcasting host broadcasting to an international audience that depended on his expertise and advice. Murphy is an odds making consultant for sports and 'non-sport novelty bets' focused on the entertainment business, politics, technology, financial markets and more.