NBA Picks

Dallas hopes to end a three-game slide as they visit the Jazz in the only NBA game being played tonight. Who comes out on top? Find out in our Dallas Mavericks vs Utah Jazz predictions. Losing three games in a row by 3, 2 and just 1 point has to be frustrating and the Mavericks fans aren’t too happy right now. Their team is below .500 at 5-6 with just 1 win in 4 attempts on the road this season. Luka Doncic is playing through a groin strain and while he is still putting up numbers, his team is failing in the clutch over and over again. Playing a lesser team like the Jazz is exactly what the Mavs need right now, they beat this team 110-102 in the first meeting of the season a little over two weeks ago. However, Thursday’s game might prove to be a bit more difficult than it should be.

Although Utah is only 2-8 on the season, they’ve actually split their last 2 games, recording wins over the Spurs and Bulls. They just lost by 8 points to the Suns at home, a slow start to that game cost them in the end. They’ll look to learn from that situation,  as their best player Lauri Markkanen is coming into his own slowly, following an injury. He has now scored 20 and 17 in his last 2 games. One edge the Jazz should have here is three-point shooting – they’re knocking down 14.2 per game over their last 5 outings, compared to the Mavs’ 11.8 per game over that stretch.

With 3 straight defeats and just 1 win in their last 5, plus a road record of 1-6 SU in their last 7 games, I’m just not too confident to back the Mavs to win by double digits here. Utah is still searching for their first home win of the season, I’ll take them plus the extra points here.

Mavericks vs Jazz prediction: Utah +9.5 is available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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Winners of 3 games in a row, the Lakers, head to San Antonio for a date with Victor Wembanyama after a historic performance. Who wins? Find out in our LA Lakers vs San Antonio Spurs Predictions.

39-year old LeBron James is defying the odds for who knows what time. He just had his 3rd straight game with a triple-double, which is unheard of. Though they didn’t cover the spread, the Lakers still won their 3rd game in a row with a 128-123 triumph over the Grizzlies. You can just feel a different energy around this Lakers team compared to years past, they are taking these early regular season games way more seriously and their record backs that up. Anthony Davis had a somewhat reserved role in the win over Memphis, but I expect him to be fired up for the match-up against Wemby.

Scoring 50 points in an NBA game is always an impressive feat, especially when it comes from a 20 year old. Wemby was the 4th youngest player ever to score 50, plus the tallest ever to do so. He was killing the Wizards from all over the place, his 8-for-16 performance from three particularly sticks out. But, he now has to back it up against much tougher opposition in AD. The Spurs haven’t had much success in this match-up over the years, winning just 2 of 10 meetings at home and only 1 of the last 7 overall. They continue to be without head coach Gregg Popovich, who continues to recover after suffering a mild stroke earlier this month.

The Lakers haven’t been as reliable covering the spread, but that’s mostly because the oddsmakers are a bit unrealistic with their spread numbers. This time LA is only a 2.5 point favorite, they’ve beaten San Antonio by an average of 10.6 points in their last 6 wins over them. After a historic performance on Wednesday, Wemby could experience a bit of fatigue here, so don’t expect another 50 piece from him. Lakers to cover.

Lakers -2.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number. 

Denver hopes to extend a 5-game win streak against a severely shorthanded Pelicans team on Friday night. Can the Joker and co. do it? Find out in our Denver Nuggets vs New Orleans Pelicans Predictions.

Nikola Jokic is having one hell of a start to a season, even by his standards. The Serbian center is averaging 29.7 points, 13.7 rebounds and 11.7 assists per game, those are better numbers than what he averaged in his MVP seasons. Only once in the month of November did he fail to record a triple double so far, you’d think that trend would continue against a Pelicans team that has very little inside presence right now. New Orleans allows 54.3 points per game inside the paint, only 2 other teams are worse than them at the moment.

Jose Alvarado, Zion Williamson, Jordan Hawkins, Herbert Jones and C.J. McCollum. That’s a list of players currently out for the Pelicans, they’re doing their best 2023-24 Memphis Grizzlies impersonation. This team just got trounced on the road by the Thunder, scoring just 88 points. It was the 2nd time in 3 games they scored that many points, it’s hard to get anything going with so many players out of the rotation. The only threat Denver has to worry about here is Brandon Ingram, he is the team’s lone bright spot averaging 22.5 points per game. Their three-point shooting is pretty poor as well, on Wednesday vs OKC they shot 24% from downtown as a team.

Anything other than a Nuggets clear victory here would be a major upset. Denver is 9-4 SU in 13 meetings, they’ve also covered the spread in 4 of 6 games lately. New Orleans is 0-6 ATS/SU in their last 6, they haven’t covered the spread in their last 9 games vs Western Conference opponent. Until they get at least a couple of players off that injury report, I wouldn’t touch the Pels.

Nuggets -8.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.