The exciting 2020-21 NBA season continues this week with some more huge slates. Here, we take a look at the juicy eight-game slate on Tuesday and provide our best spread and player prop bets for the key games. Good luck to everyone following!
NBA Betting Tips: Tuesday, 23rd of March
Sacramento Kings at Cleveland Cavaliers
Quicken Loans Arena, 10:30am AEDT
Sacramento Kings were no match for the undermanned 76ers last time out, losing by 24 points to break a mini two-game win streak they were working on. The Kings are in the midst of a long road trip and will be playing their seventh straight game away from home when they travel to Cleveland.
Cleveland Cavaliers have had a rollercoaster season with multiple 3+ game winning streaks broken up by long losing streaks. Importantly, the Cavs come into this game off a win after they made relatively light work of the out-of-sorts Raptors via a 116-105 score line.
Interestingly, these teams haven’t met each other in nearly two full years, with their most recent clash being in April 2019. The Kings will start their first meeting in 2021 as the slight favourites, which we simply don’t agree with. They’re sure to be exhausted from this long road trip they’re on and their huge loss against the 76ers last time out was further indication of that. At home and coming off a great win, we’re happy to be with the Cavaliers as the underdogs.
Cleveland Cavaliers +3.5
$1.97
OKC Thunder at Minnesota Timberwolves
Target Center, 11am AEDT
OKC Thunder have battled along admirably this season with such a limited roster. On paper they look like they should struggle to win a game, but here they at 18-24 and with wins in four of their past seven games, including a narrow win last time out against the Rockets.
Minnesota Timberwolves have had another season from hell as they really haven’t had anything go their way. They still haven’t seen how D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns work together on the court, although the former is a chance to return from injury in the coming days.
It’s quite clear that neither of these teams will make the playoffs, but it’ll still be important for them to go about their respective rebuilds properly, so we still expect both teams to give it their best at this stage of the season. With that said, it’s getting tougher and tougher for the Thunder to play well as the injuries continue to pile up, while the Timberwolves are finally starting to get a healthy-looking roster. With that in mind and coupled with home court advantage, we like the home side to cover the small spread.
There are a few player props we like in this game but the best of the bunch looks to be taking Anthony Edwards to cover his points spread. He’s getting all the shots in the world and while he doesn’t always shoot a good clip, he’s still managed to score 29+ points in three of his past four games.
Prop: Edwards O22.5 Points ($1.87)
Minnesota Timberwolves -2.5
$1.90
Charlotte Hornets at San Antonio Spurs
AT&T Center, 11:30am AEDT
Charlotte Hornets have had a great season to date when you consider the expectations surrounding their team in the pre-season; however, they suffered a huge blow on Monday when ROTY front-runner LaMelo Ball broke his wrist and is set to miss the rest of the season.
San Antonio Spurs continue their push for an unexpected playoff berth this season. They sit in seventh spot in the West as it stands with a 22-17 record, but were narrow losers against the Bucks in their most recent outing. The Spurs will be glad to finally return home for this clash with the Hornets after five straight games on the road.
The Hornets got the jump on the Spurs with a 33-17 first quarter when they met earlier this season, but the Spurs rallied back in the second term and ended up winning by 12 points. The Spurs have only improved since then and catch the Hornets in their first game without Ball in their team. The stars have aligned for another comfortable Spurs win in their second meeting of the season.
While we are expecting the Spurs to have the advantage in this clash, we still anticipate a couple of Hornets ball-dominant players getting increased minutes and numbers in Ball’s absence. Gordon Hayward seems a likely option to get a bit more ball-handling duties as he’s already shown he has the capabilities to make the right reads for this ball club. With increased opportunity with ball in hand, jump on Hayward to eclipse his PRA line here.
Prop: Hayward O31.5 PRA ($1.87)
San Antonio Spurs -4.5
$1.90
