Top NBA Odds, Picks & Predictions: Thursday (2/29)
The National Basketball Association has eight games on the slate for Thursday night, which falls on a Leap Day, with four tips scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET or earlier. There are two nationally-televised games on TNT, with the Golden State Warriors and New York Knicks squaring off in the early window, while the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets lock horns in an NBA Finals rematch in the late window. Let’s get started!
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Thursday’s Best NBA Bets
Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook | All wagers are for 1 unit
Milwaukee Bucks (-750) at Charlotte Hornets (+530) | O/U 217.5 (-112/-108)
The Bucks (38-21) meet the Hornets (15-43) in the second game of a home-and-home, this time at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. Milwaukee picked up a 123-85 blowout victory as 13.5-point favorites as the Under (219.5) hung on in the previous meeting on Tuesday at Fiserv Forum. For whatever reason, when these teams get together, the Under is sure to follow. The total has gone low in the past four meetings, and eight of the previous nine in the series.
Milwaukee has won and covered three in a row, and the Under has cashed at a 6-0-1 in the past seven games while going 11-1-1 in the past 13 contests. Charlotte has dropped two of the past three games, and the offense has gone south. The Hornets have averaged just 87.3 points per game (PPG) in the past three contests, and the Under is on a 6-0 run.
Based on the trends in this series, the trends for both sides and the power outage, in particular, for the Hornets on offense lately, the slam-dunk play here is to hammer the Under until these teams start to tick off high totals on the regular.
Bet: Under 217.5 (-108)
Golden State Warriors (-174) at New York Knicks (+146) | O/U 223 (-110/-110)
The Warriors (30-26) hook up with the Knicks (35-24) at Madison Square Garden in New York. It’s the second stop on a four-game road trip for the Warriors to the East Coast. On Tuesday, Golden State started things off on the right foot with a 123-112 win over the Washington Wizards. The Dubs covered (barely) the 10.5-point spread at most shops while the Under (245) cashed for the fourth consecutive outing.
Golden State has covered in four of the past five games while going 9-2 ATS in the past 11 contests. The Warriors have covered five in a row against the Eastern Conference, too, last failing to cover February 3 in Atlanta in an OT loss.
New York was dumped 115-92 at MSG by the visiting New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday, and the Knicks have dropped six of the past eight games while going a dismal 1-9 ATS in the past 10 games overall. The Under has cashed in four straight for the Knicks, too, while going 10-3 in the past 13 outings.
Like the series above, based on the overwhelming trends to the Under lately, go low on the total, and feel confident in doing so.
Bet: Under 223 (-110)
Washington Wizards (+320) at Los Angeles Lakers (-405) | O/U 241.5 (-110/-110)
The Wizards (9-49) hook up with the Lakers (33-28) on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers are riding a giant high after erasing a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit Wednesday night for the win over the roommate Clippers. The Lakers trailed 98-77 in the first minute of the fourth quarter, but that’s when LeBron James went off. He scored 19 points in the fourth quarter, while the Clips ended up with just 16 for the final quarter. LeBron knocked down five triples in the final quarter to post the largest fourth-quarter comeback of his career.
Washington is skidding hard, dropping 12 straight games, while going just 5-7 ATS in the span. The Wizards have been an underdog by double digits in six in a row and nine of the past 10 games, while they’re just 1-3 ATS in the past four.
The Lakers are riding high, snapping an 0-3 ATS skid in Wednesday’s comeback, covering as a 1.5-point underdog as the Under is now 3-0-1 in the past four outings. However, the Lakers are just 3-8 ATS in 11 games this season when playing on no rest. While they didn’t have to travel from a different city, but rather from the visitor’s locker room to the home locker room at Crypto, they’re still playing on no rest. L.A. should win, but Washington is a strong play catching these points.
Bet: Wizards +9.5 (-110)
Make sure to check out our other best bets for Thursday:
- NHL Prop Betting Cheat Sheet
- Top NHL Odds, Picks, & Predictions
- College Basketball Odds, Picks & Predictions
- NBA Same Game Parlay Odds, Picks & Predictions
- Premier League Matchday 27 Odds, Picks & Prediction
Cameron Lynch is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Cameron, check out his archive and follow him @captron26.