NBA Multi bet of the Weekend | Mar 8

Eight games will take place across the NBA on Saturday, and a number of them will have significant ramifications when it comes to the race for spots in the playoffs. No less than five of those games will be played between two teams still in the hunt for, at the very least, a place in the Play-In Tournament, with the Suns vs Nuggets and Knicks vs Clippers perhaps the most intriguing among them. The latter of those will be the focus of the final leg of our NBA multi; check out our reasoning for that and the other two legs below.

Saturday 8th of March, 11.30am AEDT, American Airlines Center

Unfortunately for the Mavericks, their first game without either Kyrie Irving or Anthony Davis went every bit as badly as expected. They were pummelled from pillar to post by the Bucks, ultimately going down by 30 points. Klay Thompson took a huge 27 shots in that game; somewhat justified given he was hitting them at a decent clip, but at this stage of his career he is not really equipped to carry such a significant load on offence, and the fact that he did is a reminder of the dearth of offensive options at the Mavericks disposal. With Irving out for the remainder of the season and Davis still some time away, they will most likely continue to struggle, and this game offers a great chance for their opponents to get back on the winners’ list. The Grizzlies have not exactly been setting the world on fire themselves – they have lost four games on the trot, but the first three of those came essentially on buzzer-beating game-winners from their opposition while the most recent came against the Thunder. They’ve slipped a little way behind the Nuggets as a result of that losing streak, but this is still a top-four team in a stacked Western Conference, while the Mavericks in their current state are not even close to a playoff-level team. This should be an easy, easy win for the visitors, and even the 10.5-point line set by betting sites doesn’t look likely to be enough.

Saturday, 8th of March, 12.10pm AEDT, Golden 1 Center

As tempting as it is to hone in on De’Aaron Fox in his return to the location at which he spent the first 8.5 years of his NBA career, he has not been playing particularly well for his new team of late and while he’ll likely play this game with a point to prove, it’s hard to justify banking on him to play well given that recent form. One of his teammates who has been picking up the slack is Rookie of the Year favourite Stephon Castle. Castle has had a strange year, thrust in and out of the starting line-up and playing all sorts of quirky minutes as the new-look Spurs try to figure out who to play, and when. But the 20-year-old has taken it in his stride, and in the last few games has played too well to ignore. Castle has averaged just under 24 points per game across his last four, scoring at least 17 in each of them while playing right around 30 minutes per game. He is playing aggressively on offence and well and truly earning the high volume of shots he is taking, with his efficiency improving substantially on what it has been for much of his rookie season. NBA betting sites have adjusted his points line a little, but the 16.5 points they have set it at is still less than he has scored in each of his last four games, and substantially less than what he has scored in most of them. This should be a high-scoring game against the Kings and there is no reason to think that Castle won’t again play a pivotal role at the offensive end of the floor, and to inject a little bit of value into our NBA multi, the $3 on offer for him to score 20 points for the fourth time in five games with Bet365 looks like the play.

Saturday, 8th of March at 12.40pm AEDT, Intuit Dome

Perhaps the game of the day is saved for last when the Knicks head to Intuit Dome to take on the Clippers, and the player we have our eye on will be playing a big role for the home team. It might have been James Harden who got all the headlines in the Clippers’ last game – and fair enough too, given he scored 50 points – but Zubac continued on an excellent run of form in that game as well. He put up 22 points on 11-20 shooting, marking the third time in his last four games that he has managed at least that number, a time during which he has averaged an impressive 24 per game. For reference, his season average is 15.9 points per game, and with betting agencies setting his line at 16.5 they are clearly not taking into particular account his recent form. They should be. Zubac is playing a really significant role in his team’s offence, taking at least 15 shots in three of his last four games and a huge 39 in his last two games, and if he gets that number again in this game he will likely absolutely cruise past his line. Zubac can score from a little way away from the basket but is often finishing off the work of James Harden and has a very high field goal percentage as a result, so even if he takes substantially less shots than what he has been of late he will still be a good chance of hitting this line. He is playing with a renewed confidence and pivotally, his team and in particular Harden are looking for him more often than previously. Mitch Robinson has recently returned to provide a strong defensive anchor for the Knicks, but he is still playing very few limits, with Karl-Anthony Towns playing at centre for the vast majority of the game. Talented as Towns is offensively, he is a renowned dreadful defender, and with Zubac’s excellent recent form the Clippers big man should be in for another big game to round out our multi.