NBA Multi bet of the Weekend | Apr 6

It’s a reasonably quiet day on the NBA front on Sunday in terms of the number of games, but there is plenty on the line across the five-game slate. It tips off when the Hawks host the Knicks in a battle between two probable Eastern Conference playoff teams, while later on the Pistons host the Grizzlies in an intriguing match-up between two talented young teams, the Bucks head to Miami to face the Heat in another interesting Eastern Conference clash, and the Clippers host the Mavericks in a potential Play-In Tournament preview. As always, we’ve got an NBA multi lined up for the weekend, and you can check it out below.

Sunday 6th of April, 10.05am AEDT, Little Caesars Arena

Very little separates these two teams in terms of pure record, with the Pistons sitting at 43-34 and the Grizzlies sitting at 45-32 (albeit in an admittedly much tougher Western Conference). Both still have plenty to play over the remaining few games of the regular season, with Memphis trying to extract themselves from the Play-In Tournament into the top six, and Detroit trying to hang onto the fifth seed and potentially even sneak into fourth. That means this should be a hotly contested and very entertaining game between two good teams, but in Detroit I think the betting sites might have got the odds the wrong way around. The Grizzlies, for all their top-end talent, come into this game in some really bad form. They have had a tough fixture of late, but prior to their badly needed two-point win over the Heat which came on the back of a Ja Morant game-winner, they had lost four in a row, while prior to that they had lost three of their last four with the only win coming against the Jazz. That gives them a 2-8 record over their past ten, one of their wins coming at the buzzer and the other against one of the worst teams in the league. The Pistons, meanwhile, have continued to play really solid basketball even in the absence of their best player in Cade Cunningham, who may well return for this game. If he does that will be a huge boost to the home side, but even without him they have been playing well, particularly at home. They have won their last three at Little Caesars Arena, including a defeat of the Eastern Conference-leading Cavs and a 26-point demolition of the Spurs. The Pistons in Detroit has become a really difficult road trip, and based on the way the Grizzlies have been playing they will struggle to come away with the win they need. At better than even money odds, the home side looks like great value here.

Sunday 6th of April, 11.05am AEDT, Kaseya Center

I’ve had my eye on this bet for a while now without pulling the trigger, and with each passing game I’ve regretted it. Now is the time. Bam Adebayo started taking three-pointers with any sort of regularity for the first time in his career last season, and it was much overdue – he is a good free throw shooter and has excellent touch both in and out of the paint, and while he has not proven to be elite from beyond the arc, the roughly 35% strike rate with which he has hit them is more than enough to justify the change given the space it opens up elsewhere on the floor. This season, Adebayo is hitting on 34.1% of his long-range attempts, but lately he has been hitting them at an incredibly consistent rate. In fact, since the All-Star break, Adebayo is stroking it at a hugely impressive 42.3% from beyond the arc. The Heat big man still does not take a huge number of them and that is the primary reason I’ve held off from betting on this market, but he has now hit multiple threes in four consecutive games and seven of his last nine. Despite that, NBA betting sites have him pegged at well over $3 odds to do it in this game. Don’t expect him to take an abundance of shots, so he will have to make the most of them, but there is a good chance he takes 4 or 5 attempts and the way he has been shooting for an extended period of time now, that will very possibly be enough to hit 2 or more threes. $3.30 with PlayUp for something which has happened four times in a row and seven of the last nine games looks pretty hard to ignore, and adds some great value to our multi in the last leg.

Sunday 6th of April, 1.35pm AEDT, Intuit Dome

The Clippers are in some absolutely red-hot form, establishing themselves as one of the best chances in the Western Conference of taking it up to the Oklahoma City Thunder if given the chance. In an incredibly tight run to the finish line, they find themselves still sitting in 7th and in a Play-In Tournament spot, but with just two games separating 3rd from 8th there is every chance they will move up if over the next week or so. They have won nine of their last 11 games, their only two losses in that time coming by a combined total of seven points against the teams with the two best records in the league in the Cavs and Thunder, and their average winning margin in that time is an incredible 22.1 points. The most recent of those victories was, incidentally, at home against the Mavericks, a game they won by 23 points, but despite that the line for part two of that matchup has been set at just 8.5 points by betting agencies. There is a reason for that – Anthony Davis sat out for that previous clash but should return for this one, but is he really worth the 15.5-point difference between that result and this line? Davis found his feet in his most recent game, putting up 34 points in easily his best outing since returning from injury. But the Mavs still only just won that game, sneaking over the line by two points against the Hawks, and while they won three of the four others with Davis in the line-up since his return, they were far from convincing. One of those wins was by just a point against the Bulls and another was against the Nets, while they also lost to the Nets with Davis in the line-up a few days ago. He clearly makes them a far better team particularly now that he appears to be gearing up post-injury, but he is not a panacea for an otherwise mediocre team. The Clippers, meanwhile, are playing like a genuine championship contender at the moment, with weapons all over the floor on offence and some really strong defence to boot. At the intimidating Intuit Dome, they will be expecting to walk away from this with a comfortable win, and the 8.5-point line does not look like enough.