There’s only a couple of weeks left in the NBA regular season, which means wins are at a premium for the many teams competing for playoff/play-in spots. Here, we bring you our best spread and player prop bets from the key games on Tuesday. Good luck to everyone following!
NBA Betting Tips: Tuesday, 4th of May
Indiana Pacers at Washington Wizards
Capital One Arena, 9am AEST
Indiana Pacers are coming off a mammoth 57-point win against the undermanned and inexperienced Thunder, which snapped a mini two-game losing streak. It’s been a tough season overall for the Pacers who have had as many injuries as any other team in the league.
Washington Wizards have been one of the form teams of the competition over the past month, recording 12 wins from their past 15 games. They were desperately unlucky not to get the chocolates last time out against the Mavericks on the road, but now return home where they’ve won six of their past seven.
These teams faced each other a little over a month ago in Washington and it was the Wizards who were able to negotiate an eight-point win. The only thing that’s changed since then is the Wizards are a far better team that turns up to play every night, which makes them the value play at the spread here.
Washington Wizards -4.5
$1.90
Golden State Warriors at New Orleans Pelicans
Smoothie King Center, 9:30am AEST
Golden State Warriors have been doing their best to keep their playoff chances alive, but look as though they’ll have to fight their way through a play-in tournament. They were easy winners last time out against the Rockets to snap a costly two-game losing streak against Western Conference opponents.
New Orleans Pelicans are also trying their best to prolong their season by making the top 10, but they’ll need plenty of things to go their way in the final couple of weeks for that to happen. The Pelicans pulled off a crucial win in overtime last time out against the Timberwolves, but the fact that they needed overtime against such a poor team shows where they’re at this season.
These teams haven’t met at all this season, but will play each other three times over the next two weeks. In the first meeting on Tuesday, we’re expecting a bit more of a defensive-minded game that we’d usually expect between these teams due to how much is on the line. The huge 237.5 points total just looks too high in our opinion here.
We’ve found some decent value for a player prop in this game by taking Lonzo Ball for 4+ three-pointers. He went nuts last time out against the Timberwolves with eight makes from 17 attempts, and has now made 21 threes from his past five games. Ball is averaging over eight attempts from distance this season and is shooting a decent 38%, making him a decent bet for 4+ threes on current form.
Prop: Ball 4+ Threes ($2.75)
San Antonio Spurs at Utah Jazz
San Antonio Spurs rested some of their key players on the first leg of their back-to-back against the 76ers, which they ended up losing in overtime. Interestingly, three of the Spurs’ last four games have gone to overtime and each of their last five games have been decided by five or less points.
Utah Jazz have had to deal with plenty of injuries over the past couple of weeks and it’s certainly costing them in the win/loss column. They’ve now lost three of their past four games and four of their past eight, which has seen them cough up top spot in the West to the Suns.
The Spurs are expected to have a near clean bill of health for this clash, which isn’t the case for the Jazz who will be without Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley once again. As a result, we can see an upset on the cards here and are more than happy to be on the Spurs to cover a generous spread.
There’s been some extra shots to go around without the likes of Conley and Mitchell available for the Jazz, and one of the guys that’s seen an uptick in production is Royce O’Neal. He’s been stroking it well from beyond-the-arc with at least 2+ makes from deep in six of his past eight games. The odds on him continuing on that trend look too good to pass up.
Prop: O’Neal 2+ Threes ($2.25)
San Antonio Spurs +6.5
$1.90
