NBA Multi bet of the Weekend| May 4

With the Knicks having just knocked off the Sixers to win an enthralling series in six games, just two First Round series remain in this year’s NBA playoffs. Each of them may come to an end on Saturday. The first game tips off at 9am AEST, with the Magic trying to stave off elimination on their home floor against the Cavaliers. Once that one wraps up, the Clippers will head to Dallas in an attempt to extend their series to seven games and have a chance at advancing through to the Western Conference Semi-Finals on their home floor. Below, we take a look at the bets which make up our weekend parlay for the day’s action.  

Magic -3.5 @  $1.85 | GetSetBet 

The Cavs won each of the first two games in Cleveland by double figure margins, but once the series headed to Orlando the narrative was turned on its head completely. The Magic won the first leg of their homestand by 38 points before backing that up by 23 in the second, tying the series at 2-2 prior to the aforementioned one-point game back in Cleveland. With the series now returning to Orlando, there is good reason to think that the Magic will extend it to a seventh game, and based on how easily they beat the Cavs last time the other two times they’ve played in Orlando this series, they should be able to surpass the 3.5 point line set by betting sites. All of this is pretty in line with how the Magic performed throughout the course of the regular season, during which they were a very impressive 29-12 on their home floor but just 18-23 away – it was a similar story for the Cavaliers, too, albeit a little less pronounced. Everything about this series points to it heading back to Cleveland, and the Magic should be able to cover this small line. 
 

James Harden over 19.5 points @ $1.80 | BlueBet 

James Harden had a stinker in his Clippers’ Game 5 loss to the Mavericks, managing just seven points on 2-12 shooting as his team was thumped around on their home court. Prior to that, however, he had been in the midst of a pretty good series. After averaging 16.6 points throughout the regular season, the former MVP averaged 26 per night in the first four games against the Mavericks, scoring at least 21 on each of those occasions. With Kawhi Leonard either absent or playing on one leg in all of those games, he has been forced to take on a more significant role on offence, and with Leonard already ruled out for Game 6 Harden will again need to do plenty if his team is to extend the series to seven games. Harden has been taking around 15 shots per game but importantly, has been getting to the line quite a lot, something which was his calling card during his heyday. He didn’t have nearly the same output in Game 5, but that performance is very much sticking out as an anomaly in this series. Harden has not over his career been renowned for his consistency in the postseason, but with the exception of his latest outing he has played pretty well against the Mavericks. Having passed the line set for him by NBA betting sites four times in the last five games, he looks like good value to fly past this one, too. 

Luka Doncic to score 35+ points @ $2.20 | PlayUp 

Invariably as the stakes get higher in the NBA postseason, the best players begin to take on an increasing responsibility. Luka Doncic carries a huge portion of the Mavericks offence at the best of time, but with the series there for the taking expect him to come out looking to dominate from the outset in Game 6. The Slovenian actually hadn’t been at his absolute best prior to Game 5, though testament to just how good that best is, he was still averaging 29 points, 9.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game through those first four games. But those numbers weren’t enough to stop the man himself saying that he needed to do more to help out Kyrie Irving, and that is exactly what he did in Game 5, coming out and putting up 35-7-10 in just 39 minutes – he sat a large part of the last quarter with the Mavs holding an unassailable lead. He appeared to settle into a new rhythm in that game, and he will most likely come out trying to do the same and then some in this game to avoid the series heading back to Los Angeles for Game 7. Doncic has taken between 24 and 26 shots in every game so far this series and should take at least that many once again, and having hit 35 points in less than a full game last time out he looks like good value to hit the 35 number once again to round out our multi on Saturday.