It’s been an entertaining start to the 2020-21 NBA season with plenty of thrilling finishes already in the books. We’ve also began well with our betting tips, hitting 4/5 on spread bets and 3/5 on player props. Here, we take a look at the upcoming 10-game slate on Wednesday, where we’ll be bringing you some of our best plays from three key matchups.
NBA Betting Picks: Wednesday, 30th of December
New York Knicks at Cleveland Cavaliers
Quicken Loans Arena, 11am AEDT
The Knicks will be looking to replicate their recent play against the Bucks when they travel to Cleveland for this Eastern Conference battle. The Knicks were winners at huge odds thanks to another dazzling performance from Julius Randle (29/14/7) who’s clearly their focal point on offence this season.
The Cavaliers will also be looking for more of the same when they play at home for the third time in four games. They’re a surprising 3-0 to start the season and look to have some great young talent on their hands. Darius Garland has enjoyed a fantastic start to his sophomore year in the league, while Collin Sexton and Andre Drummond have also been tremendous.
The Cavs are one of just four teams in the league still undefeated after a week of play and have a fantastic opportunity to go 4-0 when they host the lowly Knicks. They’re sharing the ball superbly on offence and have put up 122.3 points a night through three games. We don’t expect them to be a playoff team this season, but the way they’ve started out leads us to believe they’ll be too good at home for a Knicks outfit that is coming off an emotionally draining win against the Bucks.
Looking at the player props and you can’t go past Randle’s assists at the moment. He’s dished out 9, 3 and 7 in their three games to date and there’s no signs of that stopping any time soon. The line is 3.5, but you can attack some extra value with the 6+ and 8+ markets if you’re after some more value.
Randle 6+ Assists ($4.00)
Orlando Magic at OKC Thunder
Chesapeake Energy Arena, 12pm AEDT
The Magic always seem to get off to hot starts to their campaign and this season is no exception. They come into this road game against the Thunder at 3-0 after securing a huge comeback win over the Wizards on Monday. Markelle Fultz’s big contract extension in the off-season looks to be money worth spent with his 21/4/4 split a key factor in their early success.
OKC pulled off a clutch win against the Hornets in their opening game and nearly made it 2/2 against the Jazz, with SGA’s running layup just falling short on the buzzer. The Thunder will take a 1-1 start to their season however, as they’re clearly in rebuild mode and are very short odds to finish bottom in the Western Conference standings.
The Thunder have been competitive in their opening two games but are on the second night of a back-to-back and come up against a fresh and firing Magic outfit. We’re expecting this to be the first of many blowout losses for the Thunder this season.
We mentioned above the hot start Fultz is off to this season on the back of signing the mega 3-year 50-million contract extension in the off-season. The Magic are giving him the keys on offence and we’re expecting him to improve on what was a solid 2019-20 campaign. Attack the ‘Overs’ in his markets early in the season before the bookies adjust to his increased output.
Fultz Over 23.5 PRA ($1.82)
Minnesota Timberwolves at LA Clippers
Staples Center, 2pm AEDT
The Timberwolves were dealt a cruel blow with their star centre Karl-Anthony Towns dislocating his wrist in just their second game of the season. The Timberwolves were 2-0 with him in the team but got absolutely destroyed by the Lakers in Game 3 without KAT on the floor. He’ll likely miss a couple of weeks action, which leaves the T-Wolves extremely thin in the big-man department.
The Clippers are coming off a game in which NBA records were broken and certainly not in the way they’d have liked. They were absolutely punished by the Mavericks in an extremely embarrassing game for one of the key title-fancies. In positive news, Kawhi Leonard will return for this game and the Clippers are 2-0 with him leading the charge this season.
Both teams will be out to right some wrongs in this game after unacceptable losses last start. Unfortunately for the Timberwolves, we just can’t see how they’ll be able to be competitive without KAT and up against a clearly more talented side. We’re expecting a determined Clipper team to get some respect back with a blowout win at home against the undermanned Timberwolves.
With a blowout loss our expectation, we also see some value in D’Angelo Russell’s ‘unders’ markets. He struggled mightily when the defence zoned in on him last start with KAT’s absence, posting four points and seven turnovers. He should certainly be better than that atrocious performance, but we can’t see him clocking up 34+ PRA (points, rebounds and assists) if this game plays out the way we think it will.
Russel Under 33.5 PRA ($1.83)
