The 2019-20 NBA season FINALLY resumes on Friday! The league will head to Disney World in Orlando, Florida to complete the rest of the season inside a quarantined bubble at the resort. For us Aussie fans, it means we finally have some live sport to watch during the day, and we couldn’t be happier!
We’ll be bringing you three articles a week for the rest of the regular season, which will span just 15 days before the playoffs get underway straight after! Make sure you continue to check out our dedicated NBA Betting Tips page for regular updates.
NBA Betting Tips Friday 31st July
Utah Jazz vs New Orleans Pelicans
8.30am (AEST)
Every game in the NBA restart will be massive for the New Orleans Pelicans, as they look to remain within four games of the Memphis Grizzlies to force a two game play-in for the eighth seed. Currently, they sit 3.5 games behind the Grizzlies, and their matchup against Memphis later in the two week season will be huge.
The Jazz sit well and truly inside the top eight but will want to win as many games as possible after the restart to ensure they avoid the two Los Angeles teams in the first round. There is currently just three games separating the Nuggets in 3rd and the Mavericks in 7th in the Western Conference, so there will surely be some shuffling of the seeds throughout the two weeks.
With so much on the lines for the Pels, they start as two point favourites here. It’s so hard to know what sort of form the teams will bring into what is essentially a brand new season. Back the Pelicans to win a tight one here given how much is at stake for them.
Los Angeles Lakers vs Los Angeles Clippers
11am (AEST)
What a monster matchup to bring in the NBA restart from 11am on Friday morning. The Lakers and Clippers are the two powerhouses in the Western Conference and they’ll compete in what could be a conference finals preview. The Lakers bring almost a full strength squad into the restart, minus Avery Bradley who has opted to sit out the rest of the season and Rajon Rondo who is battling injuries.
To bolster their depth at guard, the Lakers brought in maligned shooting guard J.R. Smith, who has looked solid in the pre-season games and should add valuable shooting at the guard position, something that the Lakers have lacked in Rondo and Bradley.
The Clippers have a few more personnel issues to deal with ahead of the restart. Landry Shamet, Patrick Beverly, Lou Williams and Montrez Harrell are all not with the team at the moment due to various reasons and it’s unknown which of them will play on Friday. With a fair bit of uncertainty around the Clippers at the moment, we like the look of the Lakers to cover here.
