NBA Picks

This first game after the break will be an interesting test for the Pistons who will be without their leading rebounder Jalen Duren who is suspended after the brawl in the win over Charlotte. Detroit enters MSG with high expectations, they’ve beaten the Knicks by 31 and 38 points in the two meetings so far this year, Thursday’s meetings finishes the 3-game regular season series. Cade Cunningham represented the Pistons in LA over the weekend, but he didn’t exert too much energy so he should be well rested for this game. MSG is one of the tougher places to win at this season, what should give the Pistons optimism is the fact that they’ve covered in 4 of their last 5 visits.

The pair of 30+ point losses certainly sting if you’re a Knicks supporter, this is the final opportunity for Jalen Brunson and co. to get something in this match-up. No Duren down low certainly helps, KAT and Mitchell Robinson got plenty of time to rest ahead of this game, so the Knicks should have the edge in this area. That plus playing at home will be their calling cards in this game, New York has failed to cover only once in 6 games at MSG. You could argue they’re also the more in form team here with 10 wins in 12 outings and a 10-2 ATS record during this stretch.

It might sound counter intuitive to have the Knicks favored here after two bad outcomes in games earlier this season vs the Pistons, but the combination of Duren being out and the revenge factor makes the Knicks an intriguing bet here. Coming out the break it might take both sides to get accustomed to playing at a high level on a regular basis, I have slightly more faith in the Knicks who will be playing in familiar surroundings on Thursday. Lay the points with New York in this one.

Pistons vs Knicks prediction: Knicks -3.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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Thursday’s game against the Kings is a gimme for the Magic who are hoping to get back on track following a disappointing loss to the Bucks in their last game before the break. It’s time to get serious in these final 30 or so games if you’re Orlando, the team isn’t exactly doing what their fans have hoped they would at this stage of the season, but thankfully there’s still enough time to turn things around. It all starts Thursday against Sacramento, but the Magic need to guard against complacency here and not fall into the trap of thinking it’ll be an easy game. The oddsmakers have them as double-digit favorites, despite them covering just once in 10 road games and winning only 2 of 8 meetings vs the Kings.

For Sacramento it’s all about continuing what started at the beginning of 2026. This is one of the more obvious tank jobs in the league at the moment, but what is interesting the league hasn’t yet decided to fine the Kings even though they’ve pulled their starters late in games on a regular basis. On top of that they’ve now also decided to shut down Zach LaVine for the rest of the season due to an injury in his hand. Scoring has been an ongoing issue all year long, in their last 2 games the Kings failed to crack the 100 point mark. Russell Westbrook is also unavailable for this game, he is the energizer bunny for this team, doing multiple things on both ends of the floor.

With Sacramento losing 14 games in a row and putting in very little effort to turn things around, I think backing Orlando is the way to go here. I’ll back the Magic players to take this game seriously enough and play with a sense of urgency coming out of the break.

Magic vs Kings prediction: Magic -12.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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Denver is one of the teams that needed this one week break really badly, their injury situation hasn’t improved at all lately. With recharged batteries and a fully recovered Nikola Jokic they look to continue their quest of capturing the number two seed in the loaded West. San Antonio is now 3.5 games ahead, there’s plenty of time for the Nuggets to put together a win streak to catch them in my opinion. But even if that doesn’t happen, a veteran team like the Nuggets will be just fine going into the postseason as long as they get all their players back from injury. Aaron Gordon is likely to come back before the month is finished, his presence could be the key factor down the line in the postseason.

The Clippers are also hoping to make some noise in the postseason, despite trading away their main point guard and center before the trade deadline. It’s been the Kawhi Leonard show ever since those events took place and with the way he has been playing, you could argue this is the best he has looked in a Clippers uniform. The Klaw even took the ASG seriously, scoring 31 points against Team World on 84% shooting from the field. Against the Nuggets though, the Clippers might need even more than that, if we are judging them by the first two meetings this season. Denver dominated both of those games, at the Intuit Dome the Clippers fell 130-116 back in mid-November.

Slowing down Nikola Jokic will be the key for LA here, I just don’t know how they do it now that they’ve gotten rid of Ivica Zubac. Big Zu played Jokic as good as everyone in the NBA, but even with him on the roster the 3-time MVP was putting up triple-doubles. With not so much resistance to encounter down low and a fresh perspective following All-Star weekend, I have high hopes for the Joker coming into Thursday’s game. Give me the Nuggets here.

Nuggets vs Clippers prediction: Nuggets -3.5 (-115) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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