The biggest rivalry in the NBA is back with another rendition of LA v Boston on the cards. Can The Lakers cause an upset?
Best Bet
LA Lakers @ Boston Celtics (11:10am)
The Lakers’ starting backcourt of Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell is absolutely bleeding points to the opposition. In fact, the Lakers are currently leaking the 5th most points to the point guard position, which bodes well for our man Derrick White.
White is averaging 15.8 points on the season and has cleared this line in 6 of his last 8 contests. In 4 of those 6 Derrick was even able to eclipse the 20-point mark. He’s found another gear this season and is right in the hunt for an all-star reserves slot. A few more solid performances could just get him over the line.
SGM – Porzingis 20+ Points / Holiday Over 4.5 Rebounds / White Over 4.5 Assists = $5.50
Next Best
Indiana Pacers @ New York Knicks (11:40am)
This bloke is an absolute animal on the glass. In the month of January he is averaging 12.4 rebounds, which includes 2 games where he played 15 minutes due to a bit of achilles tendenitis. The very next game after this, he ramped straight up to 29 minutes and hauled in 12 boards.
Should iHart see his minutes in the mid 30s he should have no trouble at all covering this line against the fast-paced Pacers. In the past 8 games in which he has seen at least 28 minutes, he has covered this mark in every single one of them.
New York is also without next best rebounder, Julius Randle, so Hartenstein will need to shoulder (pun intended) the load.
SGM – Haliburton 15+ Points / OG Over 18.5 Points / Knicks Win = $4.50
Value Bet
Cleveland Cavaliers @ Memphis Grizzlies (12:10pm)
In a vacuum, you wouldn’t give The Grizz much of a chance against the very in-form Cavs. But this is no vacuum!
Cleveland finished a game of basketball around 9pm last night, and then were given the task of getting themselves to an airport before making the 4-hour trek over to Memphis. They probably would have rocked into their hotel rooms after 3am, and the NBA thinks it’s reasonable to schedule another match for them that night!
These types of back-to-backs are brutal, and we have seen multiple blowouts to the teams on the receiving end. One example of this is when The Bucks jumped out to a 37 point half time lead against the Boston Celtics. It’s just wild to expect these guys to be able to play professional sport against a rested team in those kind of circumstances. $3.66 is overs.
SGM – Grizz +8.5 Line / JJJ 6+ Rebounds / Mitchell 30+ Points = $6.75
Friday NBA Multi
Boston -14.5 / Grizz +8.5 / Knicks = $5.91
