NBA Multi bet of the Weekend | Jan 4

Our weekend kicks off with a nine-game slate in the NBA, and while it begins in relatively benign fashion when the Pistons face the Hornets, the day ramps up after that with a number of mouth-watering matchups. At 12pm AEDT the Rockets will host the Celtics and the Thunder will host the Knicks in two potentially elite regular season games; later, the Mavericks host the Cavaliers, the Spurs head to Denver to take on the Nuggets, the Kings host the Grizzlies before the last game of the day sees the Lakers host the Hawks. There is wall to wall high-quality action across the day, and we’ve found three nice legs for our weekend multi to make it that little bit more entertaining.

Saturday 4th of January, 11.10am AEDT, Smoothie King Center

Trey Murphy III was always poised to have the best season of his career to date in 2024-25 – it’s only his fourth in the league, and while he didn’t improve that much last season from the one prior, his talent has always been undeniable. But injury has fast-tracked that progress, forcing him not just into the starting lineup but into a really pivotal role at both ends of the floor for this team, and he has thrived. The versatile wing is scoring easily a career high 20.8 points per game, and he is only getting better as the season wears on. Over his past ten games he is up to 24.5 points per game, a period during which he has scored at least 25 points on five out of ten occasions. Despite this uptick in output, betting sites have still set his odds based mostly around his season average – just slightly above – which makes him some pretty good value for the over. Murphy has had a couple of huge games of late, scoring 34 points in his most recent outing and 35 two games before that, so his chances of going well beyond his line look pretty good. Going all the way up to 30 might be a bit too much of a risk to start out multi, but given he's hit 25 in half of his last ten games, that looks like a good bet at comfortably better than even money odds. Making this bet even more attractive is the matchup – the Pelicans aren’t great but the Wizards are even worse and are not exactly the most difficult team to score against. Murphy is a good three-point shooter but this season he has showcased his ability to score in multiple ways, particularly getting to the rim, and he should be able to do that with relative ease against the Wizards. Murphy is poised for another good game here, and him to score 25 or more points adds plenty of value to our multi.

Saturday 4th of January, 12.35pm AEDT, American Airlines Center

It’s no secret that the Mavericks are heavily reliant on their backcourt and in particular Luka Doncic, so it comes as little surprise that in the absence of the Slovenian marvel their season has hit something of a snag. They started life without him, which will continue for much of the month of January, reasonably well with a nine-point win over the Suns, but since then they have struggled, losing three in a row. The first of those was against the Trail Blazers – not good – while the latter two have been by double-figure margins against the Kings and Rockets. Those are solid sides, particularly the Kings, but they are not a patch on the Cavaliers, who are winning by big margins for fun at the moment. Cleveland has the best record in the NBA at 29-4, and have won their last eight by a massive average margin of 18 points. Every one of those wins has been by a double-figure margin, and they have been against decent teams too – their last three wins have come against the Lakers, Warriors and Nuggets, all on the road, while they have also beaten the Bucks by 23 points during this current streak. Given those results, a 6.5-point line against a Mavericks team without Luka Doncic looks like something that they should be able to cruise past. Given that they have won eight games in a row by 10 points or more, some of them against teams undoubtedly better than the Mavs sans Doncic, the odds on offer with NBA betting sites for the Cavs to continue that run look very tempting. The Cavs to win this one by 11 or more points looks like a great bet for our weekend multi.

Saturday 4th of January, 1.10pm AEDT, Golden 1 Center

Sometimes a line just looks to high, and the points total for this game is one such example. Both of these teams have the capacity to get up and down the court with ease, but neither of them, particularly the Kings, have been involved in a great deal of really high scoring games of late. Despite that, the over/under line for this game is set at a huge 238. Let’s start with the Kings. Just one of their past seven games has gone past this number, and none of the rest have gone close. Those six that have gone under have all seen 227 points or less scored, and a number of them have been well below that. The Grizzlies have certainly been higher scoring than that, but even so they are passing this number at a strike rate of less than 50% harking back to the middle of December, with five of their last eight games going under. They, more so than the Kings, will look to push the pace and play this game at speed, but the home team, despite having De’Aaron Fox running the point, will likely be a little bit more methodical. The Grizzlies play really quick, but they are also a strong defensive team, while the Kings are around middle of the league in that regard. There is no doubting that this has the potential to be a reasonably high scoring game, but a clash between two good to solid defensive teams, one of which plays fast and one of which plays at a speed around league average, should not have a line as high as this one. With the Kings having barely played a game that has gone near this for weeks, the under in this game looks like a good way to round out our weekend multi.