Nine games are on the books tonight in the Association this Friday night, as teams look to ring in one last victory ahead of the new year.
The Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons are dealing with significant short-handed rosters in their matchups vs. the Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls respectively as a result of their scuffle Wednesday night in Detroit.
Elsewhere, the top-seeded team in the Western Conference, the (cleans glasses and checks notes) New Orleans Pelicans host the Philadelphia 76ers as a short home favorite in New Orleans, looking to extend their winning streak to five in a row. The Pels are tied for the most home wins in the West with the Dallas Mavericks at 15 this year, while the 76ers are just 6-8 away from home.
Below are my NBA best bets for today’s nine-game slate, along with the best available odds and betting promos available in your state.
You can find every game’s top available odds HERE:
NBA best bets record to date
NBA best bets today
- Wizards -4.5 (-115) @ Magic
- Suns +2 (-112) @ Raptors
- 76ers @ Pelicans OVER 228.5 (-110)
Wizards -4.5 at Magic
The Magic are extremely short-handed tonight following the league’s announced suspension of eight, yes eight players stemming from Wednesday’s incident in Detroit.
While the suspensions will be staggered, the Magic are still without Moe Wagner, Jonathan Issac, Chuma Okeke, and Jalen Suggs tonight, in addition to no Cole Anthony, Mo Bamba, Wendell Carter Jr, R.J. Hampton and Garry Harris.
Bettors haven’t been able to trust Washington all year on the road, just 5-14 straight up this season, but they have been decent for a bad team at covering away from home at 8-9-2 ATS. Did I mention they’ve also won four of their last five games since losing 10 consecutive matches?
With this line on the move, I’ll take the Wizards to cover the 4.5-points on the road against a Magic team that had been playing great, but now find themselves in a major predicament.
Suns +2 at Raptors
The Suns played terrible in a blowout loss on the road in their last game Wednesday night vs. Washington, but played much better the game before with a dominant 125-108 victory on the road vs. the Memphis Grizzlies. In that game, the Suns’ defensive presence finally showed up, and the offense was balanced with eight different players in double figures.
Toronto, meanwhile comes off a back-to-back at home vs. the Grizzlies, and have lost two straight games in their home arena.
Via Covers, Phoenix has won five straight games ATS playing on one day’s rest, and are 5-3-0 this year as an underdog with a ATS +/- of +1.9.
The Raptors look lost. In December, Toronto owns the fifth-worst net rating in the league; only ahead of bottom-feeders such as Charlotte, San Antonio, Houston and Detroit.
Even with all the injuries piling up for Phoenix, I like them to cover the short number away from home.
76ers vs. Pelicans OVER 228.5
Both of these teams have been terrific defensively in the month of December, but I’ll side with the over in New Orleans for a few different reasons.
The trends back up the play. For Philadelphia, they’ve gone 8-3 to the over in their last 11 games, 4-0 in their last four on the road, and 5-1 in their last six after a straight up loss (via Covers). The Pelicans’ trends back up the over even more. They’re 6-1 to the over in their last seven, 5-1 in their last six at home, and 6-0 to the over in their last six after a loss ATS.
New Orleans also boasts the sixth-best offensive rating in the NBA at home in the month of December, while Philadelphia comes in seventh-best away from home. The traditionally reliable 76ers’ defense also takes a major back seat away from Philly, ranking 23rd in the NBA in defensive rating in December.
I’ll side with the points in the league’s best battle on the board.
Follow all of Ben’s betting plays in real-time HERE!
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