Difficult week for us last week but we are confident of having a big day on Thursday with a huge 12-game slate on offer. Here, we’ll be assessing the value on offer in some of the key game, so take a look below where we preview our NBA betting tips for Thursday, 21st December!
2017-18 NBA Preview & Betting Tips for Thursday, 21st December
Indiana Pacers At Atlanta Hawks (11:30am AEDT).
The Pacers are coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Celtics, where they rallied back from a 15-point half time deficit to eventually go down by a single point. Despite the result, it was another good showing by Oladipo (37 points) and the Pacers in their impressive 17-14 season. They will travel to face the Hawks on Thursday in a one-game road trip. The Pacers have been decent on the road this season and are 9-5-0 ATS in their 14 away games.
The Hawks snapped a 4-game losing streak when they defeated the Heat at home on Tuesday. The Hawks are a scrappy team in rebuild mode and will come against a Pacers team who has playoffs aspirations. Mike Budenholzer’s men will play their second of a 2-game home stretch on Thursday, where they are 4-10 and 7-7-0 ATS.
The Pacers have much more to play for and will be hungry to rectify the performance from their latest outing. We are expecting them to get over the line comfortably in Atlanta.
TIP: Indiana Pacers at the line (-4.5) - $1.95 at Sportsbet
Miami Heat At Boston Celtics (11:30am AEDT)
The Heat are travelling to Boston on Thursday to take on the Celtics in their second of a 2-game road trip. The first game of their trip ended in a 110-104 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday. The Heat were missing the majority of their starting 5 and struggled to cover their absences. They are 9-8-0 ATS in away games this year, however, they are currently banged up and will face a very tough test on Thursday.
The Celtics are returning home after a quick 2-game road trip where they won both games. Their most recent win was by 1-point over the Pacers on Tuesday, thanks to a late steal and bucket by Terry Roszier with under 2 seconds to play. The Celtics have been extremely impressive this season and currently hold a 13-3 home record and are 9-5-2 ATS in those games.
After an injury-riddled couple of weeks for the Celtics they finally have a near fully healthy roster for this game. We expect the Celtics to defend home-court comfortably.
TIP: Boston Celtics (-7.5) - $1.87 at CrownBet
Los Angeles Lakers At Houston Rockets (12:00pm AEDT)
The Lakers were unable to take advantage of a shorthanded Warriors line-up on Tuesday, eventually going down to the defending champions by 2 points in overtime. It won’t get any easier for the young Lakers on Thursday when they travel to Houston to take on the red-hot Rockets. The Lakers are currently on a 3-game losing streak and have an away record of 4-10 and 6-8-0 ATS.
The Rockets extended their winning streak to 14 on Tuesday when they defeated the Jazz. It looked like it was going to go down to the wire when they trailed by 5 at the final break, before blowing out the Jazz by 21 points on the back of a 41-15 final quarter smashing. The Rockets are still undefeated with Chris Paul in the line-up (13-0). They are 13-3 at home and 7-8-1 ATS.
The Rockets winning streak will come to an end at some point, however, it won’t be against the Lakers on Thursday. Although the Rockets will be too strong and could blow this one out early, we think the Lakers have some firepower of their own on offense, which should equate to an extremely high-scoring contest.
TIP: Total Points Over (225) - $1.91 at Ladbrokes
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