NBA Expert Tips and Best Bets | Apr 2

The NBA season is reaching its zenith, and while many teams are jostling desperately for playoff positions, others have long ago put the cue in the rack. That means that circumstances are particularly relevant in predicting outcomes at the minute, with games between tanking teams and playoff prospects even more likely than usual to fall the way of the favourite. That fact will inform all three of our best bets of the day, each of which sees us backing a playoff (or at least Play-In Tournament) team to win comfortably against bottom-ranked sides whose seasons are already done and dusted. Take a look at all three of them below.

Hawks 11+ @ $2.65 with PlayUp

The Blazers have had a fun little run over the back half of this season, giving themselves an outside chance at sneaking into the Play-In Tournament and providing plenty of optimism for the future for their fans. But that run has been brought to a screeching halt over the past few games. Portland have lost their last four games to all but end their hopes of finishing in the top ten in the Western Conference, with each of those losses coming by 11 points and an average of 15.5. Granted it’s been a tough stretch of games, but with their Play-In tournaments disappearing with every passing game, so too is their motivation. Making matters worse, they have a number of injuries to key players and they’re not likely to be pushing anyone through ailments with their season over. Jerami Grant is likely to miss this game, while Deandre Ayton, Scoot Henderson and Robert Williams are also out, and Anfernee Simons is a game-time decision. All of that wouldn’t bode particularly well against any team, and while the Hawks aren’t exactly championship contenders, they are still playing for something. Atlanta sits 7th in the East, but they are just a game ahead of the Magic and still theoretically in danger of dropping to 9th or 10th if they struggle over their remaining few games. The Hawks have been a little up and down over the last week or two, but they are coming off a dominant 21-point win over the Bucks in Milwaukee. The 5.5-point line betting sites have set for this game looks very low given these teams’ respective circumstances, particularly in Atlanta, so we’re going beyond a simple line bet and backing the Hawks to win by 11+ at good odds.

Knicks -14.5 @ $1.88 with QuestBet

It has been a seriously grim season for the Sixers, and the manner in which it is ending sums up the year in its entirety. With virtually their entire starting five missing, they are putting a very unusual starting five out on the floor and are suffering, as expected, some pretty hefty defeats as a result. Quentin Grimes has been one shining light for them over this period and he will likely return for this game after missing the last, but with or without him they have been getting pumped most games – and by some pretty average teams at that. The Sixers have now lost eight consecutive games, and working backwards their last few results are an 18-point loss to the Raptors, a 23-point loss to the Heat, a 5-point loss to the Wizards, and 13-point defeats to the Pelicans and the Hawks. The Knicks are better than all of those teams, some of them by a whole lot, and given the heavy nature of most of those defeats the 14.5-point line set by NBA betting sites looks pretty easy for the home team to cover. New York have not had exactly the season they would want, but they are still set to finish third in the Eastern Conference and are playing some good basketball at the right time of the season – and without their best player in Jalen Brunson at that. They have won four of their last five games by an average of 15 points, and with their last three of those wins coming against the Trail Blazers, Bucks and Mavericks, the Sixers should prove to be a very easy kill at Madison Square Garden. If you want to take a bit of extra value and back the Knicks to win by 20+, that wouldn’t be a bad bet either, because this should be a bit of a bloodbath.

Bulls -5.5 @ $1.95 with Unibet

The Raptors are an exception to the rule which has informed the above two bets, winning games despite having long been resigned to missing the playoffs. They have managed to win four games on the trot, not that those wins have meant all that much – they have been against the Wizards, Nets, Hornets and Sixers, the only four teams below the Raptors in the Eastern Conference standings. The Bulls are only one spot further ahead in 10th, but they will provide a far sterner test than those four sorry excuses for NBA teams. In fact, though the Bulls are still no more than an average team, they have actually been in some strong form of late courtesy in no small part due to Aussie Josh Giddey, who has been doing it all – passing, rebounding, scoring, hitting half-court game-winners over LeBron James. The Bulls have lost their past two games, but the most recent of those was a thumping defeat at the hands of the Thunder – a pretty commonplace result – and the other a one-point loss to the Mavericks. Prior to that they had won four on the trot in really impressive style, beating the Lakers twice, as well as the Nuggets and the Kings. Their home United Center has not exactly been a fortress this season – they are 14-23 there – but they’ve been playing much better at home of late, winning three of their last four with that solitary loss being the aforementioned one-point defeat to the Mavs. The 5.5-point line set by betting agencies is pretty low for this game considering that, despite sitting just one position apart in the standings, the Bulls are still jostling for spots in the Play-In Tournament while the Raptors are not in the mix. And while both have been winning plenty of late, the Raptors have been doing it against the worst teams in the league and the Bulls against some of the best. There is a far bigger gap between these two teams at the moment than both the standings and their recent win/loss records would suggest, and the home team should have no problems cruising to a really easy victory.