NBA Picks

The Denver Nuggets hope their trend of alternating wins and losses continues when they host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday afternoon. Denver has gone back-and-forth over its past 9 games dating all the way back to February 4 and it most recently lost at Oklahoma City 127-121 in overtime on Friday, so you could say it is due for a win. The Nuggets should be able to get it, too, so my Timberwolves vs Nuggets pick is for the home team to win and cover. This marks the fourth meeting between these 2 Western Conference rivals, with Denver sweeping the regular-season head-to-head series 3-0. It got the job done 127-114 at Minnesota in October, 123-112 at Minnesota in November and 142-138 in overtime at home on Christmas Day.

Minnesota is in solid form right now, but not to the extent that you would expect the visitors to suddenly get over the hump in what is clearly a bad matchup for this club. Although the Timberwolves are 5-1 SU in their last 6 contests, they got blown out at home by Philadelphia 135-108 last weekend. Moreover, Julius Randle (21.7 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 5.3 apg) is questionable for Sunday due to back spasms. That would obviously be a huge loss down low against Nikola Jokic and company. Speaking of Jokic, he has scored at least 30 points in 3 of the last 4 games and is coming off a triple-double (23 points, 17 rebounds, 14 assists) against OKC. Give me Denver — and that’s even if Randle ends up taking the floor.

Timberwolves vs Nuggets prediction: Denver -2.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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It’s not often you’ll see the Memphis Grizzlies hold an opponent to just 105 points these days, but that’s exactly what they did in their last game beating the Mavs by 19 points on the road. The trip continues in Indiana on Sunday as they look to sweep the regular season series vs the Pacers. There’s really no good news on the injury front for either side here, with so many players out we aren’t exactly sure how the starting line-up for the Grizzlies will look here. For what it’s worth this team has the upper hand in head-to-head meetings winning 7 of the last 9 games, while also covering 8 times in that span.

Indiana is rock bottom of the Eastern Conference right now, with just one more loss than the Brooklyn Nets in 14th. They’ve dropped 5 games in a row, with two of those losses coming against the lowly Washington Wizards which is really hard to do considering how bad that team has played all year. I can’t see the Pacers putting in the effort to change things here, a win only worsens their chances for landing the top pick in the draft lottery. Even the three-ball which has been a reliable shot for most of the season has failed the Pacers – in their last 2 games they’ve dropped just 11 and 13 of them.

Entering March we will see a lot of games like this one where both teams would rather lose than get a win. So what is the best course of action? I’d say backing the over. That bet has cashed in 6 of 7 for Indy and in 5 straight at home. For Memphis that bet is 9-3 in their last 12 games, with both sides playing without any real pressure here, defenses might take the night off which should result in a lot of points. Back the over.

Memphis Grizzlies vs Indiana Pacers Predictions: Over 238.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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It was a lot harder than expected, but the Detroit Pistons got the job in the end beating the shorthanded Cavaliers 122-119 in OT. The game was marked by a malfunction in the arena horn which went off for 13 minutes, before eventually getting fixed. Sunday sees the Pistons travel to Orlando for a date with the Magic in what could potentially be a East first round playoffs preview. These two did split the first 2 meetings of the season so far, interestingly enough playing in the venue in Orlando hasn’t been a pleasant experience for the Pistons over the years. Cade and co. have failed to cover in their last 5 visits and are just 2-9 straight up in 11 meetings with the Magic overall.

Kevin Durant was too much to handle or the Magic in their last game as he dropped a cool 40 piece on them in a 113-108 home loss to Houston. It was the Magic’s first home game following a grueling West coast trip, so perhaps we can attribute the loss to that. With them settling in a bit, they’ll look to get a result at Kia Center where they are one of the more reliable home teams in the league at 17-10 SU this season. Coming up with a gameplan to contain Cade Cunningham will be a priority – the Pistons MVP candidate has torched them for an average of 34.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 10.5 assists in the two meetings so far this season.

The Pistons needed OT to beat a Cavs team without Donovan Mitchell and James Harden on Thursday. Orlando has been a tough nut to track over the years when playing at Kia Center, I feel like the Magic will use that to their advantage on Sunday. With a 6-3 SU record over their last 9 games and a run of 4-1 ATS in their last 5, I can definitely see them keeping things close here. .

Detroit Pistons vs Orlando Magic Predictions: Magic +5 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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The Thunder played their hearts out on Thursday, spending a ton of energy by beating their number one competitor in the Western Conference the Denver Nuggets in OT. SGA returned triumphantly following a long absence due to injury, he will look to lead his team to an easy win on Sunday in Dallas. The Thunder still have a few notable players out injury, including Ajay Mitchell and Jalen Williams. Their last trip to Dallas saw them win by just 7 points back in late October, they do lead the regular season series 2-0 ahead of Sunday’s 3rd and final meeting.

Dallas has split their last 4 games coming into this one, despite a tough injury situation which has seen their rookie and leader Cooper Flagg miss multiple games. The foot injury has kept him out for over 2 weeks of play now, and his ROY award is in jeopardy with Kon Knueppel playing extremely well for the Charlotte Hornets. We probably won’t see Flagg return on Sunday, but I would imagine it’s happening this upcoming week at some point. Despite all their troubles this season the Mavs are still 16-16 ATS in home games this season, playing hard on the defensive end as they don’t really have a consistent three-ball.

A blowout is expected here, the oddsmakers have favored the road team by 15.5 points. I don’t believe the Mavs will go away without a fight here though, the last 6 meetings have seen them cover 4 times. OKC’s 31-30 ATS record is far from convincing from a bettors’ perspective, so I’ll take the Mavericks plus the points here.

OKC Thunder vs Dallas Mavericks Predictions: Mavericks +15.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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The news coming out of Philadelphia once again isn’t good, Joel Embiid just got ruled out for the next 3 games with an oblique injury. That’s just the latest in line of a variety of injuries that have slowed down the Philly big man, he will be dearly missed in Sunday’s affair with the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. Following a slow start out of the break and a 4-game losing streak, the Sixers have turned things around with 3 wins on the bounce vs Minnesota, Indiana and Miami. This team’s form has been very erratic and unpredictable this season, I would go as far as saying they are the Minnesota Timberwolves of the Eastern Conference with the way they’ve performed this season.

Meanwhile, the Celtics have been a lot more stable despite their best player not playing a single game this season and their coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for that. Jaylen Brown’s breakout season hasn’t gone unnoticed, he is very much a top 4 NBA MVP candidate this season along with SGA, Joker and Cade. Boston’s only slip up after the break happened in Denver where they got beat by 19 points at the hands of the Nuggets, in a 2nd night of a back-to-back scenario. Things returned to normal with a dominant 148-111 win over the Nets the other day, Boston went off for 22 threes made in that game and a field goal percentage of over 66%. Doing that against a tanking Nets team is hardly a measuring stick, but it’s always nice to get a big win in preparation for a big game.

Philadelphia does lead the regular season series 2-1, they also stole a game at TD Garden on opening night by a point back in late October. The fact that they can lose by 8 points here and still cover is very tempting, the 3 meetings this season so far have been decided by just a combined 4 points. I guess it makes more sense to back the underdogs here, so let’s give Philadelphia the benefit of the doubt and back the Sixers plus the points.

 Philadelphia 76ers vs Boston Celtics Predictions: 76ers +9 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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