The NBA Playoffs are heating up and already we are seeing quite a few upsets in the first couple of days of play. Tuesday night sees a 3-game slate, beginning in the Eastern Conference between the 76ers and Celtics at 7 pm ET. After that we have the Trail Blazers and Spurs locking horns at 8 pm ET, while the night concludes in Los Angeles where the Rockets aim to level their series with the Lakers, from 10.30 pm ET.
My NBA Best Bets for Tuesday include one tasty upset, plus one bet on the spread and one bet on the point total. Odds are courtesy of FanDuel, make sure you go over our NBA Picks page before making any bets. Now let’s take a deep dive into my selections!
76ers vs Celtics Best Bet: 76ers ML (+640)
Monday night saw a pair of Game 2 upsets as the Hawks overcame the Knicks by a point at MSG and the Timberwolves beat the Nuggets in a tight finish at Ball Arena. At least one upset is bound to happen in Tuesday’s slate in my opinion, so why not take a gamble on Philadelphia at this massive price? Yes, they didn’t play well at all in the opener, but with two days to think about that loss and come up with a better gameplan for Game 2, I have a sneaky feeling the 76ers could switch up a thing or two and make life difficult for the Celtics. Philadelphia’s best chance would be to speed things up here, they ranked 15 spots above the Celtics in terms of pace during the regular season. And they also have to get Maxey going from three, he shot 51.4% from downtown in four regular season meetings vs Boston. If they can fix those two things I could very well see them coming out victorious on Tuesday. For those who aren’t as brave, there’s also the option to back the Sixers plus the spread which sits at 13.5 points as we approach tip-off.
Trail Blazers vs Spurs Best Bet: Spurs -11.5 (-114)
The atmosphere at Frost Bank Center felt the best out of all the Game 1s we saw over the weekend, that certainly helped the Spurs and Victor Wembanyama overcome some jitters as he made his postseason debut. San Antonio put on a clinic defensively, holding the Trail Blazers to just 98 points. That’s been the hallmark of this team all year long, Wemby was just announced as the winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award which should further motivate them to do well as the two teams face off in a rematch on Tuesday. Portland had it’s moments even tying the game in the 3rd quarter after falling behind early, but this being their first postseason run as a group it’s really hard to imagine them pulling off the upset against arguably the toughest defense in the NBA. I expect the Spurs to neutralize Deni Avdija and once again put on a dominant display defensively here.
Rockets vs Lakers Best Bet: Over 206.5 Points (-114)
Game 1 between the Rockets and Lakers was arguably the weirdest one of the NBA Playoffs opening weekend. Kevin Durant opted not to play which resulted in just 98 points scored by Houston, despite them taking 27 more shots from the field and outrebounding the Lakers 44-35 (and 21-3 on the offensive end). With KD presumably coming back, the efficiency of the Rockets offense should go up which in theory means more points scored. In their lone win at Crypto.com Arena during the regular season they scored 119 points, pushing the tempo might just be the recipe for success on Tuesday night. The Lakers felt very comfortable scoring the ball (61% from the field and 53% from three) despite not having Reaves and Doncic at their disposal, LeBron James is doing his best getting everyone involved and is thriving in that role. I’m confident these two teams have enough to overcome a somewhat low projected total here.
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