Tuesday’s list is light in terms of games but big in terms of postseason impact. There are only five games in total on the schedule, with each game a team playing for play-in or playoff positioning.
The Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers battle for a tiebreak at the top of the East, while the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz take on two play-in-bound teams (well…we’ll see about the Lakers) in Los Angeles.
Our NBA analysts are looking for the best bets after one of these games and another East matchup. Check out their analysis below.
NBA Odds & Tips
Detroit Pistons versus Brooklyn Nets
| Choose | Kyrie Irving over 24.5 points (-115) |
| a book | BetMGM |
| tip | 7:30 p.m. ET |
| TV | NBA League Pass |
Brandon Anderson: Kyrie Irving is finally allowed to play home games in Brooklyn, but his home debut on Sunday night was a dud.
Irving has been red hot since the All-Star Break but cooled off badly with a disappointing 16 points on his season debut in Brooklyn. It was a disheartening loss for the Charlotte Hornets, one of the teams the Nets are battling in the play-in race.
Tonight looks like an excellent setback point for both the Nets and Kyrie against a struggling Detroit Pistons team that is already in the offseason.
The truth is that Sunday was little more than filming for Irving. It’s not like he was taken down – he just missed shots. Irving made 22 shots but only made six of them. That includes 1 of 9 on 3 points, his worst individual 3-point performance of the season, and it was also just four free throws short of his season average.
Really, Irving’s volume has been insane lately. Since the All-Star break — that is, since James Harden’s trade — Irving has averaged 36.7 minutes per game and 21.4 field goal attempts.
He’s averaging over 1.51 points per shot during this stretch and is averaging 32.4 PPG with plays of 38, 43, 50, and 60 points. That’s half of his games with at least 38 points since Harden’s trade, and if Irving had maintained his 1.51 points per shot in the last game, he would have had 33 instead of 16 there, too.
Today’s bet is also a good reminder to shop around and use our props tool to find the best odds on the board as I play a whole cocktail of Irving props from three different books. We’re projecting Irving at 28.2 points, so I’m running the standard over 24.5 points at -110 on DraftKings.
But it’s clear we should play some alternate overs here too, so I’m grabbing the best lines available with 35-plus at +550 on PointsBet and 40-plus points at +1100 on FanDuel.
Keep in mind that since the Harden trade he has scored 35+ points in 50% of his games, which would mean +100 instead of the +550 we get. Even in a potential blowout situation, I’m banking on Kyrie Irving hitting back with a great night in front of a home crowd.
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Utah Jazz vs. Los Angeles Clippers
| Choose | jazz-1 |
| a book | Caesars |
| tip | 10 p.m. ET |
| TV | NBA League Pass |
Raheem Palmer: The Jazz come off a brutal East Coast road trip after losing four straight games to the Brooklyn Nets, Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets and Dallas Mavericks and are now flying back to the West Coast to take on the Los Angeles Clippers Team they defeated by nearly 30 points on March 18th.
A big part of the struggles in Utah has been the absence of Bojan Bogdanovic, who is the team’s second-best goalscorer at 18.1 pints per game. One of the team’s top three-pointers with 39.2% on 6.7 attempts per game, Bogdanovic was a tremendous loss for a Jazz team that leads a league and shoots 43.6% of their attempts from behind the arc.
They should have him back tonight, which should be huge for their offense given that he’s almost three more points per 100 possessions in the lineup. Nonetheless, Rudy Gobert is also questionable for this matchup, so keep an eye on his status.
Still, with or without Gobert, I think that line is short against a Clippers team that has only had a 27th offensive rating (108.4) and 26th defensive rating (121, 2) occupied.
While Paul George could return to the lineup tonight, I’m happy to fade high stakes players coming back from serious injuries in their first game as they tend to be rusty as the market overstates their presence if they get their legs under you receive. I take the Jazz at -1.
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