NBA Pick #1: 549 Miami Heat @ 550 Chicago Bulls
Rating: 2 Units – Regular Play
Pick: Over 213
Price: -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
Write Up:
Chicago is coming from two weird losses in a row against Orlando in games where the team was unable to score in the first halves. After last night’s game, Bulls coach Billy Donovan said that he wants his team to accelerate its pace:
“I think generally when you’re not playing with great pace, you’re not going to generate great shots,” Donovan said Friday. “We’ve just got to find a way to play the way we did in the second half. And I’m not even necessarily talking about that we were mistake-free, but just the force and pace we played with at both ends. We’ve got to be able to establish that the whole game, because we’re certainly digging ourselves incredible holes to come from.”
Note that Chicago did exactly that in the second halves of both their games against Orlando and they scored 61 and 64 points after scoring only 33 and 33 points in the first half. I expect Chicago to be more aggressive since the start of the game. On the other side, with Butler more established and Robinson spreading the floor, the Heat have been very solid on offense as of late by averaging 122.7 off rate in their last 4 games. My fair price for this totals line is close to 220 points and so, I’ll take the Over in here.
NBA Pick #2: 551 Memphis Grizzlies @ 552 San Antonio Spurs
Rating: 2 Units – Regular Play
Pick: Under 226.5
Price: -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
Write Up:
After struggling for several games to have an efficient game on offense, San Antonio went toe to toe with Sacramento with 120 points scored. The biggest edge they had on the game was via their frontcourt players with Collins shooting 10-14 FG and Wemby 12-26 FG. They were able to exploit Sacramento’s general lack of size and good interior defense in order to create solid looks for their bigs.
Memphis might not be an overall good defensive team but they have size on the frontcourt with Jackson and Biyombo. This will put pressure on the Spurs’ guards to have efficient games, something I don’t expect to happen with Vassell still out. On the other side, Memphis without Smart will have issues with their playmaking. They are built to score in the paint but San Antonio just like Memphis has size on their frontcourt. Both teams lack quality on the backcourt and have size to protect the paint, so I’ll take the Under in here.