Filip Tomic
Show Bio
After an epic night of NBA In-Season Tournament games on Friday, we start off the weekend with another 6-game slate on Saturday. I’ve picked out my 3 favorite bets from tonight’s action, in hopes of making the most out of what will be an exciting night of basketball.
Make sure you visit our NBA predictions page for picks on the Spread and Total for all 6 Saturday games.
Let’s dive into my bets now!
NO Pelicans ML (+184)
Miami Heat -3.5 (-110)
Over 224 Pts in Grizzlies vs Spurs (-110)
Parlay odds: +935
NO Pelicans ML vs MIN Timberwolves (+184)
To start off the Parlay I’m going with the Pelicans to beat the Timberwolves at home. New Orleans is coming off a big home win over the Nuggets last night, so they will be playing on a 2nd night of a back-to-back here. Although that’s not ideal, I still feel like these odds are too good to pass up for a team that’s filled with so much talent. Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valanciunas all went over 20 points in last night’s win, a similar effort will be needed in order to win tonight’s game.
Minnesota just had a 7-game win streak snapped by the Phoenix Suns, this team is in midst of a 5-game road trip which ends tonight. With their minds set on returning back home, we’ve often seen teams struggle in these type of games. I feel like the oddsmakers might have jumped the gun a little here by favoring the Timberwolves by 5.5 points. They’re only 1-5 ATS in their 6 road games this season. New Orleans did beat them twice in the last 3 meetings at Smoothie King Center, I’ll be backing Zion and co. to improve on that run in tonight’s game.
Miami Heat -3.5 vs CHI Bulls (-110)
These two teams are headed in completely different paths at the moment. The Heat have put together quite a run winning their last 7 games in a row, while the Bulls are on the verge of imploding with a 4-9 record and 3 losses on the bounce. To make matters worse for the Bulls, they’ve won just twice in their last 6 games at the United Center, while in head-to-head meetings with Miami they’re just 1-6 ATS there.
Losing Tyler Herro seems to be a blessing in disguise for Miami every time it happens. Last year he went out in the 1st round of the postseason and Miami almost went all the way. They’ve won all 4 of their games since losing him this time around and with their next 2 games being against the Bulls I can’t see them slowing down any time soon. Bam Adebayo has upped his production significantly compared to last year, he might end up winning the DPOY this season. The Heat should stroll through Chicago in this one.
Over 224 Pts in Grizzlies vs Spurs (-110)
Memphis is really struggling without Ja Morant. Injuries have also taken a toll on them, the latest player to go down was their point guard Marcus Smart. Their defense has been a disaster, in 2 of their last 3 games the Lakers and Jazz have put up 135 and 127 points on them. They’re ranked only 19th in defensive rating, while playing the 11th fastest pace. In the 4 games played against the Spurs last season they allowed 120, 129, 113 and 124 points.
Defense is also the biggest problem for the San Antonio Spurs this season – they’re 29th in defensive rating with teams averaging 124.5 points per game against them. They’re also a bottom 5 team in opponent rebounds per game and 29th in opponent three-point percentage. The Spurs might be bad, but their games have been highly profitable when betting on the over. That bet has cashed 10 times in 12 outings so far, including all 6 at the AT&T Center. The 10 most recent meetings between the Grizzlies and Spurs have averaged 231.8 points per game, which is almost 8 points over tonight’s projected total. I’ll be backing the points in this one.
Check out my Memphis Grizzlies vs San Antonio Spurs Predicitons
