The NBA Playoffs continue this weekend with two important games on Saturday. Check out our best spread and player prop bets for both games right here!
NBA Playoffs Betting Tips: Saturday, 12th of June
Philadelphia 76ers at Atlanta Hawks
State Farm Arena, 9:30am AEST
This intriguing series heads to Atlanta for Game 3 tied at one win apiece. After getting jumped early in Game 1 and eventually losing by four points, the 76ers were able to bounce back in Game 2 with a comfortable 16-point victory. Still, the Hawks would be the much happier of the two teams after two games and now own home court advantage.
The 76ers were led by another huge performance by Joel Embiid in Game 2 with 40 points and Seth Curry stepped up again with five more made threes, but Ben Simmons struggled again with just four points and missed both his free throw attempts. Meanwhile, Trae Young was kept quiet with 21 points after exploding with 35 in their Game 1 win, but still top scored for his team.
The 76ers had the best home record in the East during the regular season, so it was impressive to see the Hawks get the split in the opening two games. In saying that, we expect the 76ers to come out ultra-aggressive in Game 3 in attempt to win back home court advantage in the series. The Hawks were good on their home deck during the regular season with 25 wins from 36 games, but they lack playoff experience and struggled to generate consistent offence when the 76ers ramped up their defence in Game 2. All in all, it’s a tough Game 3 to predict, but we have to give the edge to the playoff-hardened 76ers on this occasion.
The Hawks had one of the deepest rotations of all teams during the regular season but have really tightened things up in the playoffs, opting to use a seven-man rotation for the most part. One of the guys who has been playing huge minutes is Bogdan Bogdanovic, which has seen his shot attempts increase from 13 in the regular season to 15 in the playoffs. He struggled a touch in Game 2 by shooting 6-16, but we expect him to bounce back on his home floor to score 18+ points in Game 3.
Prop: Bogdanovic O17.5 Points ($1.85)
Philadelphia 76ers H2H
$1.87
Phoenix Suns at Denver Nuggets
Ball Arena, 12pm AEST
Game 2 of this fun series followed a very similar script to that of Game 1, with the Suns dominating the third quarter to ignite their crowd and eventually cruise to a comfortable win. It must be said that the Nuggets were expected to challenge the Suns on their home court a touch more in the opening two games due to how inexperienced the Suns are, but that just hasn’t been the case.
Just about everything has gone to plan so far for Phoenix, but the most important thing that they’ve done through two games is keep the MVP, Nikola Jokic, relatively quiet. Not only has DeAndre Ayton gotten the job done on the defensive end, he’s also been a constant paint threat on offence by averaging 17.5 points per game. For the Nuggets, their main cause for concern is how poor they’ve been at attacking the paint and getting to the free throw line, as they’ve had just 26 total attempts from the stripe from two games.
It may seem hard to understand why the Nuggets are going into Game 3 as favourites on the back of two poor performances in Phoenix; however, the Nuggets are always one of the hardest teams to beat on their home deck and will be playing with desperation in what is absolutely a must-win game for them. We can see the Nuggets bringing the heat in Game 3 to secure a much-needed win.
We mentioned above that the Joker has been relatively well-held by the Suns defence through two games. In saying that, he’s still 23 points in the series and has been by far his team’s most consistent threat on that side of the ball. We’re expecting the recently named MVP to be far more aggressive in looking for his shot in Game 3 and to put up at least 25 attempts, which should equate to a 30+ point performance.
Prop: Nikola Jokic 30+ Points ($2)
