Filip Tomic
It’s arguably the game of the season for the Phoenix Suns who are trying to catch-up with the Dallas Mavericks for the 10th seed and the play-in tournament. Tipoff is at 3.30 pm ET, my Same Game Parlay bet is priced at +415 odds.
Sunday’s predictions are available on our NBA Picks page, let’s get into my Suns vs Mavs SGP bet now.
Suns -7.5 (-110)
Devin Booker to score 25+ points (-130)
Klay Thompson Over 3.5 made threes (-114)
Same Game Parlay odds: +523
Suns -7.5 (-110)
No matter how many times the Phoenix Suns have been discounted in the Western Conference play-in tournament race this season, they always seem to find a way to get back into the mix. The latest injury to Kyrie Irving has opened up the possibility of them catching the Dallas Mavericks in the 10th spot, that’s exactly the team they are playing on Sunday in one of the biggest games of the season. Injuries have decimated the Mavs, it’s not really surprising they’ve lost 4 games in a row, all 4 by double digits. To make matters worse 3 of those were at home, so even a packed American Airlines Arena is unable to help this shorthanded roster. Kevin Durant and co. are coming off an unlucky loss to Denver, they just couldn’t overcome the historic night of Nikola Jokic. However, this time around there’s basically no front line player to worry about, especially on defense which should open up space for Durant to do damage. Phoenix has won 2 meetings earlier this season when both teams were at full strength, they’re the odds-on favorite to do so here as well. Dallas is in a rough spot with just 1 win in 7 games, they’ve failed to cover in 5 straight as well. I’ll take the Suns.
Devin Booker to score 25+ points (-130)
After three games of averaging just 12 shot attempts per game, Booker finally woke up in his last game against the Nuggets putting up 19 of them and had one of his better scoring games since the turn of the year. He finished with 34 points in the loss, which is an encouraging sign for head coach Mike Budenholzer who has struggled to put Booker in a position to be the player he was last season. Playing a team like the Mavericks should benefit him in this game, over the last 4 games Dallas has the NBA’s 3rd worst defensive rating. Klay Thompson is no where near the defensive player he once was, other than him the Mavs don’t really have anyone to throw at Booker here. With the Mavs’ last 3 opponents shooting 44.4% from three, you have to really like Booker’s chances to put up some points here.
Klay Thompson Over 3.5 made threes (-114)
Can you imagine how Klay Thompson must feel right now? The main reason he came to the Mavericks was because of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, over the past month or so he’s now lost both of them and the Mavs season is pretty much a wrap. Not having either of those two out there on the court makes Klay now the number one scoring option, so perhaps he can use these remaining 20 or so games to regain some of the touch he has lost through the years due to all the injuries he sustained. Over his last 10 games he’s averaged 4 made threes per game on 44.4% shooting, his shot attempts have gone up drastically since Irving got injured. He now has the ultimate green light on offense, that’s always a good thing when you’re backing a player to hit a certain number of threes. The Suns haven’t exactly been elite on defense around the perimeter lately, their last 3 opponents have averaged 41% of made threes. Even the low volume three-point shooting Nuggets were able to knock down 52.5% of their attempts against Phoenix the other night, so I expect Klay to do some damage.
