The NBA is back in full swing and Thursday brings us a six-game betting card, spaced out throughout the afternoon and evening. Here’s what stands out to me on DraftKings Sportsbook on Thursday.
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Set your DraftKings lineups here: NBA $450K Thursday Shootaround [$100K to 1st]
Indiana Pacers vs. Phoenix Suns: OVER 229 (-109)
These have been two of the top offenses in the bubble thus far, both out to surprising 3-0 starts. These teams come at you offensively with a rapid pace and haven’t necessarily been slowing anyone down in their wins. The Suns are averaging 119.7 points per game, while the Pacers average 119.3. Looking at pace and matchups, scorers like Devin Booker and T.J. Warren should help push this one into the 230s.
Miami Heat vs. Milwaukee Bucks: MIA +9.5 (-114)
The Bucks have been struggling mightily in the bubble, going 1-2 ATS, with an outright loss to the Nets as 19-point favorites. I don’t care if the studs took the second half off, Milwaukee looked awful, and they trailed by eight at halftime to Brooklyn’s third stringers. The Bucks collapsed down the stretch against the Rockets and needed some favorable calls to get the cover against the Celtics. There’s no Jimmy Butler for Miami, but the Heat have played very well without him. Not only are they coming off a win over the Celtics without Butler, but they beat Milwaukee earlier in the season by five in overtime without him. With Butler, the Heat defeated the Bucks by 16 in Miami in the following matchup. The Heat match up well here and are getting way too many points against a Milwaukee team that’s falling apart defensively.
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Los Angeles Clippers vs. Dallas Mavericks: LAC -4 (-112)
Dallas is 0-3 ATS in the bubble, and while it earned its first victory on Tuesday, it took a heroic triple-double from Luka Doncic just to steal the game in overtime. It’s just too much heavy lifting for Luka against a strong Clippers defense. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard will both play in this one, which resulted in a 15-point Clippers’ victory the last time around. Having George on the floor is also very helpful, as he limited Doncic to to just 22 points in that game. The real kicker here is that the Clippers are coming off a heart-breaking buzzer beater loss to the Suns. The Clips are 16-5 ATS off a loss this season, including demolishing the Pelicans on Saturday, following last Thursday’s tight loss to the Lakers.
Portland Trail Blazers vs. Denver Nuggets: POR -4 (-112)
The Nuggets have smacked the Blazers around every time they’ve met this season, so of course, we’ll take the Blazers as favorites this time around. It’s just a completely different situation between these two teams. Denver’s playing on the second day of a back-to-back, and would still be without all three starting wings — check on their status’ on DK Live throughout the day. Meanwhile, Portland is a different animal with Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins back in the frontcourt and has depth with Hassan Whiteside now coming off the bench. The Nurkic vs. Jokic matchup is more of a wash than people want to admit, and having Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum go at Denver’s backup guards just combines to give too large of an edge here.
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Set your DraftKings lineups here: NBA $450K Thursday Shootaround [$100K to 1st]
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is jedlow) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
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