NBA Pick #1: 505 Boston Celtics @ 506 Washington Wizards
Rating: 2 Units – Regular Play
Pick: Over 229
Price: -110 / 1.91 on Betonline
NBA Pick #2: 511 Detroit Pistons @ 512 Oklahoma City Thunder
Rating: 3 Units – *TOP PLAY*
Pick: 511 Detroit Pistons (+6)
Price: -101 / 1.99 on Pinnacle
Write Up:
Detroit has been one of the biggest surprises of the season so far. The effort and the discipline they have been showing is impressive and this is the result of a great job that Monty Williams has been doing and the ability to motivate his players. The Pistons are a very physical team that dominates the boards (they won the boards battle in every game so far this season with 52.8%, 53.7% and 59.4% reb rate and their interior defense has been also very good as they have been playing with two legit bigs in Duren and Stewart.
Detroit’s style matches up very well with Oklahoma City, a team that was outrebounded in every game so far this season and that lacks the strength on their roster to bang with Detroit, especially on a 3in4-b2b spot. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a rough game against Denver yesterday and it is natural that he has a bit of a bounce back tonight but Cade Cunningham has been impressive and he should be able to balance this PG duel. I believe this game will be much closer than these six points line suggest.
NBA Pick #3: 515 Golden State Warriors @ 516 New Orleans Pelicans
Rating: 2 Units – Regular Play
Pick: 515 Golden State Warriors (+4.5)
Price: -110 / 1.91 on DraftKings
Write Up:
We took New Orleans on their first two games and we won both plays in a simple way. They didn’t show a particularly efficient offense as their perimeter shooting and ball movement left a lot to desire but their defense was very good especially in the last game when they limited the Knicks’ offense to 87 points. The blueprint of these performances was some great 3pts defense with 12-43 and 7-37 3pts allowed.
But is this sustainable? Well, Memphis and the NY Knicks shot 8-37 (21.6%) 3pts wide open against them, so the answer is no. Golden State’s offense struggled in terms of 3pts shooting in their first game against Phoenix but they have already shown how good they are in hitting 32-77 (41.6%) 3pts in their last two games. I understand that this is a 3in4-b2b spot for them but they won easily against Houston last night and only Curry played more than 30 minutes (31) and their bench was really the reason why they won so easily last night. Golden State will have a big edge with their bench tonight against a depleted Pelicans’ bench and so, I believe this should be considered a 50/50 matchup.