Thursday's NBA slate features four games after the early Paris tilt and Joel Embiid, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum are all in action tonight. We've got four previews, picks and 12 props to look at.
Thursday’s odd NBA slate contains five games but the Pistons and Bulls are playing in Paris today so the tip off is at 3:10 p.m. Too early for this column but you can watch it on NBA TV. We’ve also got the Warriors @ Boston and the Nets @ Phoenix as the two TNT games tonight now that the Thursday night NFL schedule is behind us.
Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are all expected to be available for this game while the Warriors will likely be without the services of JaMychal Green, Andre Iguodala, Jonathan Kuminga and James Wiseman. The Warriors have lost four of their last six games and their two wins came against the Spurs and Wizards, so they’re not exactly conquering the world right now. Curry’s only been back from his shoulder injury for four games and you have to think things will start clicking for this team at some point. It’s also interesting that while in the midst of a potential six-game losing streak in mid-December the Warriors’ lone win happened on Dec. 10 at home against the Celtics in their only meeting thus far. Klay Thompson led the way with 34 points in an easy 123-107 win that day and, yes, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown both played in that one. The Warriors will need the Big 3 plus Jordan Poole to all play well if they’re going to stop the streaking Celtics tonight.
The 21-6 Celtics have it set on cruise control right now and have won seven straight games despite Brown missing the last three games. He’s a game-time call for tonight so check back later to see if he’s playing through his groin injury. Boston is coming off a two-game set at Charlotte and Tatum blew up for 51 points, nine rebounds, five assists and seven 3-pointers in Monday’s win. Tatum has scored at least 30 points in five of his last six games and is averaging 31.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.2 3-pointers in January. Derrick White and Malcolm Brogdon have seen a bump in value with Brown out but there appears to be a decent chance Brown’s playing tonight.
Top performing Oddscrowd bettor burdspencer likes the Celtics -6.5 at home tonight and we’re rolling with him.
Pick: Celtics -6.5
Prop 1: Jayson Tatum Over 44.5 combined points, rebounds and assists
Prop 2: Jordan Poole Under 20.5 points
Prop 3: Klay Thompson Over 21.5 points
The Raps have lost two of their last three despite a recent Fred VanVleet explosion. After scoring 14 or fewer points in four straight games, VanVleet blew up for 33 points, five rebounds, eight assists, two steals, two blocks and five 3-pointers in Monday’s overtime win at New York. And then he topped that one with 39 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in Tuesday’s loss at Milwaukee. In sticking with the theme of cold outside temperatures, the Raps will be in Minnesota tonight to meet the Wolves for the first time this season. The Raptors are 20-25 and currently on the outside looking in as far as the playoffs go. They need to start winning games so FVV is going to have to stay hot and get some help from Pascal Siakam, O.G. Anunoby, Scottie Barnes and Gary Trent Jr. All of them played well in the last one except for Anunoby, who had just five points on 2-of-13 shooting. But he should bounce back, as that was his first single-digit scoring night since way back on Oct. 24 and just his second game of the year where he didn’t score at least 10 points. The Raptors injury report is clean as of 1:45 ET.
The Timberwolves have actually been playing well of late, winning six of seven games before dropping their last two to the Jazz and at Denver. And unlike the Raptors, their injury report is littered with big names. Karl-Anthony Towns and Jordan McLaughlin are out, and Anthony Edwards (hip), Rudy Gobert (groin), Taurean Prince (ankle) and Austin Rivers (knee) are questionable on the second night of a back-to-back. Gobert played last Saturday and on Monday, but saw a combined 18 minutes in them, with just five minutes in Monday’s game before he checked out with groin soreness. If he plays, we’re not expecting much. Edwards’ hip has been bothering him for a while and while he hasn’t missed a game, he didn’t look great on Wednesday when he had just 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting. He was cooking before that, scoring at least 20 points in his previous five games, so he could bounce back if he’s able to go tonight. Jaden McDaniels, Kyle Anderson, Naz Reid, D’Angelo Russell, Edwards and Luka Garza (off the bench) all scored between 13 and 18 points in a balanced Wolves attack in a close loss to the Nuggets last night.
Top performing Oddscrowd bettor bodysurfoceanside likes the Over 230 tonight and with the Raptors healthy, we like them minus the points against a team they should beat. Especially if Edwards sits out tonight.
Pick: Raptors -5
Prop 1: Fred VanVleet Over 18.5 points
Prop 2: Scottie Barnes Over 27.5 combined points, rebounds and assists
Prop 3: Pascal Siakam Over 32.5 combined points and rebounds
The Nets have lost three straight games without Kevin Durant (knee) available and while he’s out again tonight, the rest of the Nets’ injury report is clean as of 2 p.m. ET. Their three straight losses have come against the Celtics, Thunder and Spurs, so things are kind of weird in Brooklyn right now. Kyrie Irving, who needs to pick up the slack with KD out, missed Tuesday’s game with a calf injury but says he’s playing tonight. The last time we saw Kyrie was on Sunday when he hit just 7-of-20 shots for 15 points, which was disappointing. His hip was bothering him and he’s been resting ever since, so hopefully he’s ready to bounce back tonight. Without Irving the Nets got absolute duds from starters Joe Harris and Royce O’Neale in Tuesday’s loss to the Spurs. Nicolas Claxton had a double-double with 15 points, 11 boards and four blocks, Ben Simmons had a triple-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, four steals and two blocks, and Seth Curry added 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting. T.J. Warren also played well off the bench with 19 points and five rebounds and Cam Thomas scored 15 off the bench. Edmond Sumner added 13 points in that one, but should disappear with Irving back.
The Suns will once again be without Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Landry Shamet, but will welcome back Cameron Johnson (knee), who has been out since Nov. 4. Johnson’s minutes will be iffy tonight so we’d stay away from him until he re-establishes himself in the rotation. With all the injuries the Suns have now lost 12 of their last 14 games, and nine of their last 10. Mikal Bridges led the Suns with 21 points and seven assists in Monday’s loss to the Grizzlies and Deandre Ayton hit 8-of-11 shots for 18 points, five rebounds and zero blocks in that one. It’s hard to trust anyone on the Suns right now outside of those two. Bridges has scored at least 21 in three of his last four games, but had just seven points in the other one.
The Oddscrowd algorithm gives a 2.6 percent +EV Edge to the Suns Moneyline tonight at +134 but with Irving back and the Suns so banged up, we’re going with the Nets minus the points on the road.
Pick: Nets -2.5
Prop 1: Kyrie Irving Under 29.5 points - That’s a lot of points to ask of a guy who struggled in his last one and then sat out the next two with a hip injury, despite a good matchup tonight.
Prop 2: Ben Simmons Over 15.5 combined rebounds and assists
Prop 3: Mikal Bridges Over 16.5 points
The Sixers have won three straight games and eight of their last 10. The three straight wins all came on the road on the west coast and Joel Embiid and James Harden are rolling right now. Embiid has scored at least 30 points in all six of his January games and has double-doubled in four of them. Harden was a complete dud on Tuesday with six points and nine assists but had scored between 17 and 31 points in other eight January games. Despite the recent dud, Harden is averaging 21.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 11.2 assists this month. Tyrese Maxey came off the bench for 22 points on Tuesday and Tobias Harris added 20 points, six rebounds, six assists and five steals. De’Anthony Melton and P.J. Tucker joined Harden in an off night on Tuesday.
The Blazers have won two of their last three games and center Jusuf Nurkic is probable tonight with a calf injury. He’ll have his hands full with Embiid after getting a full dose of Nikola Jokic on Tuesday night, when Jokic dropped a 36-12-10 triple-double. Nurk hit just 2-of-9 shots for six points, 10 rebounds and two blocks in that one so Embiid is probably licking his chops. Damian Lillard is out of his mind right now, scoring between 30 and 50 points in each of his last six games and Jerami Grant is averaging 20.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.2 3-pointers in January.
Oddscrowd top performing bettor bodysurfoceanside likes the Over 233.5 total in this game and we like the hot Sixers -2 on the road. Either way, it should be fun watching Lillard, Embiid and Harden go at it in Portland.
Pick: Sixers -2
Prop 1: James Harden Over 31.5 combined points and assists
Prop 2: Damian Lillard Over 39.5 combined points and assists
Prop 3: Joel Embiid Over 42.5 combined points and rebounds
