First of all, Merry Christmas to all of our followers! What better way to recover from a Christmas hangover than bunkering down and watching a fantastic Boxing Day slate of NBA. Here, we bring you all of our best plays from the key contests. Good luck to everyone following!
NBA Betting Tips: Sunday, 26th of December
Golden State Warriors at Phoenix Suns
Footprint Center, 9am AEDT
The Warriors remain the only team in the competition that is yet to lose back-to-back games this season and come into this contest with a 26-6 record. Most recently they took care of business at home against the Grizzlies, making it two wins in a row since their defeat away to the Raptors where they were extremely shorthanded.
The Suns had a shaky start to the season with losses in three of their first four games, but since then they’ve been nothing short of dominant with wins in 25 of their last 27 games. They have a league best 26-5 record and enter this slate on a five-game win streak. Most recently they made light work of the Thunder with a 12-point win in Phoenix.
What a fantastic game we have on our hands here between clearly the two best teams in the league at the moment. They’ve already met each other twice this season and enter their third meeting with the series tied at 1-1. The Suns will start as the clear favourites, which makes sense when you consider their record, but the Warriors will be sure to put up a very strong fight and should be able to cover the big spread as long as they play somewhere close to their best.
Golden State Warriors +6.5
$1.94
Brooklyn Nets at Los Angeles Lakers
Staples Center, 12pm AEDT
The Nets have had a turbulent season to say the least but have still found a way to amass the best record in the East at 21-9. Kevin Durant, James Harden and obviously Kyrie Irving have all missed plenty of games this season and only Harden is expected to suit up on Sunday. The undermanned Nets lost their most recent game at home against the Magic which snapped a four-game win streak.
The Lakers have also had their fair share of injury and health and safety protocol issues this season, but haven’t been able to handle it as well as their opponents here. They come into this game off a really poor home loss against the Spurs, which made it four straight losses by an average margin of just over 17 points. The Lakers record now sits below .500 at 16-17, although they’re still sixth in the West.
If both of these teams were at full strength, then we would have a very juicy matchup on our hands, but that certainly isn’t the case. Neither side boasts great form in the lead-up, which makes it tough to pick a winner in this evenly priced game. With that said, we do slightly lean towards the Lakers on this occasion, simply due to them having home court advantage and because the Nets are without their best player in Kevin Durant.
Los Angeles Lakers H2H
$1.88
Dallas Mavericks at Utah Jazz
Vivint Arena, 2:30pm AEDT
The Mavericks, like most teams, have had to play without key pieces in a lot of their games this season, particularly of late with Luka Doncic missing a bounce of games. Most recently they suffered defeat at home against the Bucks, making it three losses from their last four games. The Mavs slipped below .500 with their last start loss and are currently seventh in the West standings.
The Jazz have had a decent run with injuries this campaign which has helped them play consistent basketball up until this point. They’ve somewhat gone under the radar in the Western Conference due to the incredible form of both the Warriors and the Suns, however, the Jazz have put together the third best record in the league at 22-9 and have won 10 of their last 12 games.
The Jazz are clearly the better team of the two and are in good form entering this home clash with the Mavericks. However, the spread is set at a massive 12.5-points which is a bit too much for our liking. Instead, we like the look of this game going over 213.5 points, which it has done in 11 of the Jazz’s last 12 games.
Player Props
4am Hawks at Knicks – Kemba Walker 21+ Points $1.91 Sportsbet
6:30am Bucks at Celtics – Jayson Tatum 27+ Points $1.95 TAB
9am Warriors at Suns – Devin Booker 24+ Points $1.95 TAB
12pm Nets at Lakers – LeBron James 44+ PRA $1.80 TAB
12pm Nets at Lakers – Blake Griffin 22+ PRA $1.80 TAB
2:30pm Mavericks at Jazz – Donovan Mitchell 26+ Points $1.85 Sportsbet
