NBA Multi bet of the Weekend| April 13

A lot will go down this weekend in the NBA, with the 82-game regular season coming to a conclusion over the coming days and still plenty of potential movement possible in both conferences. Saturday will be a bumper day of action, with every single team taking to the court for what will be their 81st game of the season, before their final regular season matchups take place a couple of days later. A number of teams have absolutely nothing to play for, but there are a large number whose regular season fortunes are still a long way from being decided, and which of those categories different teams fall into will have a big impact on betting markets. Below, we take a look at three of the best bets for the day to make up our final weekend multi of the regular season. 

Saturday, 13th of April at 9.10am AEST, Wells Fargo Center 

The Sixers are a much better team with Joel Embiid on the floor – who would’ve thought!? The reigning MVP missed a number of months during which the Sixers, previously a top three team in the East, tumbled down the standings, but with him returning just on the eve of the playoffs they are now a wildcard in the Eastern Conference, capable of doing a lot more damage than their seed would suggest. Embiid returned five games ago and, lo and behold, the Sixers have won all of them. He missed one of those games, and unsurprisingly that was the one in which they struggled the most, needing overtime to beat the Spurs, but there were some impressive performances among the other wins. They beat both the Thunder and the Heat by four points in back to back games with the exact same score, before knocking off the Grizzlies by 20 points and the Pistons by 18. The Magic are a hell of a lot better than those teams, but the line of 6.5 points set by betting sites might not be enough, particularly with the indifferent form Orlando have displayed of late. They’ve lost two games in a row and three of their last four, and they have been bad losses too. With plenty on the line they lost to the Hornets by nine points, the Rockets by 12 and most recently the Bucks by 18. Their offence isn’t up to the standard of the other top teams in the East but a robust defence has made them a good team throughout the course of the year, but having conceded at least 117 points in each of those losses that has wavered of late. Now they face an energised Sixers team with the most damaging scorer in the game hitting his straps, and the result is a likely loss. Having lost three of their last four by bigger margins than this line, there is good reason to think that the Magic are set for yet another double figure defeat at the hands of one of the more in-form teams in the East. 

Saturday, 13th of April at 10.10am AEST, FedExForum 

The Lakers most likely need to win both of their remaining two games if they’re to have any chance of jumping up to the eighth seed, which is significant for a couple of reasons. Firstly, that will put them in the 7 vs 8 game in the Play-In Tournament and give them two bites at the cherry for the playoffs. Secondly, it will give them a chance to snatch the seven seed, and subsequently most likely avoid the Nuggets, who look destined to finish on top after beating the Timberwolves on Thursday. They’ve had a couple of bad losses in a row with both LeBron James and Anthony Davis sitting a game apiece, but while they’re labelled questionable and probable respectively they will surely both play in what is a season-defining game. With them playing – or even just one of them – they should have no problems disposing of the Grizzlies, who have pretty much pulled up stumps for the season, very easily. With a raft of injuries, most notably to Ja Morant, the Grizzlies have done reasonably well to remain competitive for much of the season even if they haven’t won many games, but with the season coming to an end they’ve fallen off a cliff in their last few outings. They’ve lost by 20 points to the Sixers, 15 points to the Spurs and most recently 12 points to the Cavaliers, and up against a Lakers team with plenty to play for they will likely struggle to make this much of a contest. The line set by NBA betting sites is pretty hefty at 13.5, but the Lakers should be able to roll past it and give LeBron and AD some rest in the final quarter. 

Saturday, 13th of April at 10.40am AEST, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse 

Caris LeVert has been a really important player for the Cavaliers off the bench this season, both when they have been fully fit and when their talented back court has missed time – which has been relatively common. Though not always the most efficient, he has grown into the season and when he was required to fulfil a bigger role, did so relatively capably. With Mitchell and Garland now back in the fold he has returned to the pine, but it hasn’t stopped him from being very productive in recent games. Mitchell hasn’t played in all of those but he has in most, and whether he has been there or not LeVert has been scoring reasonably heavily. In his past six games he has scored at least 15 points five times, averaging over 18 per game in that time. In his past three games he has scored 21, 18 and 18, taking between 13 and 15 shots in each of those and playing at least 28 minutes, but his line set by betting agencie for this game is just 13.5. He looks likely to pass that and by a few points too, and betting on him to score at least 15 provides a little extra value. Also in LeVert’s favour is that the Pacers play a fast-paced (pardon the pun) game and there should be plenty of points scored in this one – more than the usual, relatively low-scoring Cavaliers game – and if he again plays around 30 minutes and gets off close to 15 shots against a defence with plenty of holes in it, he should be able to notch up 15 points for the sixth time in seven games and give a nice little value boost to our multi.