We continue our coverage of the exciting 2021-22 NBA season on Thursday where there are nine games on the schedule. Check out our best spread and player props for the slate below and good luck to everyone following our NBA tips!
NBA Betting Tips: Thursday, 3rd of February
Memphis Grizzlies at New York Knicks
Madison Square Garden, 11:30am AEDT
The Grizzlies were unable to make it four wins in a row when they fell in overtime against the 76ers last time out. They suffered that loss despite getting some monster contributions from two of their stars in Ja Morant and Desmond Bane who combined for 71 points. The Grizzlies remain in third position in the West standings with the third best record in the league at 35-18.
The Knicks were able to get some joy out of what’s been a pretty disappointing season to date when defeating the lowly Grizzlies by 16 points on Tuesday. That win snapped another three-game losing streak they had cooked up, which was their fourth such streak already this season. Despite all of that, the Knicks are still only three games back from the eighth seed in the East.
Yet to meet each other this season, the Knicks will be looking to build from a last time out win, while the Grizzlies will be trying to bounce back from a loss, when these teams face off in New York on Thursday. In our opinion, this is a pretty straightforward play here as the Grizzlies are the far better and more consistent of the pair and should be too strong over four quarters.
Memphis Grizzlies -3
$1.90
Cleveland Cavaliers at Houston Rockets
Toyota Center, 12pm AEDT
The Cavaliers continue to battle on despite dealing with a whole host of key outs at the moment. Their depth has been tested with the likes of star guard Darius Garland and Collin Sexton both out, but they’ve come through strong with wins in nine of their last 11 games, including their most recent outing against the Pelicans. The Cavaliers are now fourth in the East and only 1.5 games back from the #1 seed.
The Rockets season was pretty much over before it began with how their roster has been assembled. Clearly in a full rebuild and targeting a youth first approach, the 14-36 Rockets enter this slate on a four-game losing streak, which is still nowhere near the 15-game losing streak they achieved earlier in their campaign. They remain glued to the bottom of the West and with the third worst record in the league.
The Rockets have been at near full strength for a number of games now and it hasn’t made much different at all to the outcome of their games. In contrast, the Cavaliers are enjoying a shockingly inspired campaign where they are now a legitimate chance of vying for the top seed in the East. Therefore, winning these types of games should be no problem for a team of their calibre.
Cleveland Cavaliers -3
$1.90
Portland Trail Blazers at Los Angeles Lakers
Crypto.com Arena, 2:30pm AEDT
The Trail Blazers have been arguably the most disappointing team in the league this season and it doesn’t look like changing anytime soon. They were utterly disgraceful in their most recent 17-point loss to the rebuilding Thunder, which made it four losses from their past five games. The Trail Blazers have now fallen to 21-30 on the season and need to shake things up with the trade deadline approaching.
The Lakers are another team that have severely underwhelmed this campaign and while they have had a lot of injury issues, so have nearly every team in the league. That aside, the Lakers have shown some more competitiveness in recent outings despite not getting the desired results. They enter this slate with a 24-27 record and sit in ninth spot in the West.
This is a battle between two of the more underperforming teams this season and it will be their third of four clashes for the regular season. The season series is currently tied at one win apiece, with both teams taking care of home court, although the Lakers were dominant 33-point winners in their most recent meeting and have been the marginally better of the two teams in recent outings. With that said, we’ll be backing them into get the job done over the Trail Blazers here.
Los Angeles Lakers -2.5
$1.85
Player Props
11:30am Hornets at Celtics – LaMelo Ball 35+ PRA $1.95 TAB
11:30am Hornets at Celtics – Miles Bridges 21+ Points $1.85 TAB
11:30am Grizzlies at Knicks – Ja Morant 28+ Points $1.90 TAB
11:30am Grizzlies at Knicks – Desmond Bane 19+ Points $1.89 Picklebet
12pm Cavaliers at Rockets – Kevin Porter Jr. 26+ PRA $1.85 TAB
12:30pm Thunder at Mavericks – Josh Giddey 8+ Assists $2.15 Picklebet
