NBA Multi bet of the Weekend| May 18

The Conference Semi-Finals are nearing a close, and a number of series are primed to go right down to the wire. One of those is the Knicks vs Pacers Eastern Conference clash, which will be the solitary game to take place on Saturday. The Knicks currently lead that one 3 games to 2 after yet another dominant performance from Jalen Brunson in Game 5, but back in Indiana the Pacers are favoured to even the series up and send it to Game 6. With just one game on Saturday, our weekend multi this week will be a same gamer – take a look at it below. 

Saturday, 18th of May at 10.30am AEST, Gainbridge Fieldhouse 

After an electric start to Game 2, OG Anunoby suffered an injury which has seen him miss the past three games, and will again see him sit for Game 6 of this series. There have been a few pieces shuffled around as a result, and Miles McBride has been one of the major beneficiaries. After playing just 11 minutes in Game 1, he played 20 in Game 2 with Anunoby missing the latter stages of that game, and has been handed progressively more responsibility from coach Tom Thibodeau ever since. Game 3 saw him notch up 29 minutes, before he played 32 in Game 4 and then a huge 40 in Game 5. Unsurprisingly, it has since been announced that he will be moved into the starting line up for Game 6, and another 40-minute night – if not more, based on how his coach likes to keep the starters in the game – looks to be on the cards as a result. More importantly than just his minutes, however, McBride has been being more and more aggressive on offence, and in his last two games has taken an average of 16 shots for 16 and then 17 points. His points line set by betting sites has understandably gone up as a result, but still likely not enough if he again takes that number of shots. It’s set at just 13.5, and having taken 15 and 17 shots in his last two games he should be able to cruise past that. After taking on such a drastic change in role over the past couple of games, now is a good time to cash in on McBride, and though the bookies have made some adjustments, it doesn’t look likely to be enough. For a little extra value, we will take him to get 15 points. 

Saturday, 18th of May at 10.30am AEST, Gainbridge Fieldhouse 

While a lot of the minutes that Miles McBride has been eating up have come from the absence of OG Anunoby, Donte DiVincenzo has been another who has lost out on a few of them in the past couple of games. After playing at least 44 minutes in a terrific four game stretch during which he scored at least 23 points in every game, the 27-year-old has struggled over the past two and has spent a lot more time warming the bench than he had previously. In Game 4, DiVincenzo went 3-13 from the field for just seven points, and with that inefficiency his minutes dropped drastically to just 32. Game 5 wasn’t a whole lot better. That time out he went 4-14, missing all six of his three point attempts for just eight points, and he only played 30 minutes in this game. For the purpose of this same game multi, it makes a lot of sense to bet on the DiVincenzo under combined with the McBride over, as there is a good chance that the two are relatively correlated; if the McBride leg hits he will probably be playing a lot of minutes, and DiVincenzo will likely be playing lower minutes as he has in the past couple of games as a result. We of course always love a same gamer in which the legs are complementary, and taking the DiVincenzo under makes this one exactly that. NBA betting sites have set it for 17.5 points for this game, still a little over his season average, and having not hit that total combined over his past two games the under looks like a decent bet.  

Saturday, 18th of May at 10.30am AEST, Gainbridge Fieldhouse 

To the final leg of the multi, we head to the game result itself, and we’re sticking with a trend which has been very prominent throughout the course of this series. The home sides have dominated so far, the Knicks a total of +43 in the three games in New York and the Pacers at +37 in the two games in Indiana. In the opening home stand at Madison Square Garden the Knicks were too good on both occasions, winning in a tight four-point game to start the series before enjoying a slightly cushier nine-point victory in the next game. Once the teams headed to Indiana, however, it was a different story. The Pacers were able to secure a five-point win in Game 3 to keep the series close before they dominated in Game 4 behind an excellent Tyrese Haliburton performance, winning that game 121-89 to tie things up at two wins apiece. But back in New York, it was like two different teams were playing, and that time around it was the Knicks who won by 30 points in what was an incredible 62-point turnaround from the game prior. Now heading back to Indiana, there is good reason to think – based on the evidence from the previous five games – that the home team will again be able to get the job done, and relatively comfortably. The Knicks will again be without OG Anunoby while Jalen Brunson is injured, not that it stopped him in any way, shape or form in his previous outing. Regardless, the Pacers have been a different team on their home floor this series while the Knicks have generally struggled, so the home side looks like a good bet to cover the 6.5-point line set by betting agencies.