NBA Expert Tips and Best Bets | Dec 4

Wednesday will be the final day of the Group Stage of the NBA Cup, and with 11 games set to take place, there is plenty to be decided over the course of the day. It kicks off with a fight for top spot in East Group B between the Bucks and the Pistons, both of whom are undefeated in the Cup, while the Magic and the Knicks face off in the same situation in East Group A at 11.30am AEDT. Elsewhere, the Spurs take on the Suns in a game with plenty of significance in West Group B, while the Warriors and Nuggets play later on in the day in a game which isn’t as important in the context of the NBA Cup, at least for the Nugs, but which could easily be a preview of a playoff series later in the season. Below, take a look at three of our best bets for the day’s action.

76ers -5.5 | $1.98 with QuestBet

This is not exactly a clash of the titans, with both of these teams currently sitting in the bottom four of what is a very mediocre Eastern Conference. But the Sixers’ start to the season has been dictated heavily by injury, with the absence of Joel Embiid for most of the season to date, Paul George for large chunks of it and Tyrese Maxey for a few games as well making it impossible for them to be even close to the team that they are capable of being at full health. Embiid will remain out for this one, but George is back for his second consecutive game while Maxey now has a few under his belt in succession. Even with just Maxey running the show alongside a haphazard cast of helpers, the Sixers had begun to show some form, with the three games prior to George’s return yielding one easy win, and an overtime loss to a very good Rockets team. And in George’s first game back, they looked better than they had for a while, beating a plucky young Pistons outfit by 15 points. Without Embiid playing – or even with him in but not at close to full fitness – they are not nearly as good a team as they could be, but with George and Maxey in they should still easily have the Hornets minus Lamelo Ball covered easily. Ball is a superstar in the making if he can stay fit, something he has struggled with over the past few seasons, and he is again out for at least a couple of weeks. With him absent, the Hornets have a startling lack of offensive options. Brandon Miller is a very talented young player but he has been forced to take on an enormous load in the two games since Lamelo’s injury, putting up 25 shots in the first and then 30 in the next, and with so much focus on him he has unsurprisingly not been very efficient, going a combined total of 17-55 (30.9%) from the field in that time. The Hornets have hung around in those two games courtesy of some solid defence, but they are only league average in that regard and have overperformed in these past two games. The Sixers are a long way from championship contenders with their current lineup, but with George and Maxey in they should be a solid enough team. Embiid’s back-up, Andre Drummond, will also miss this game through injury, leaving a big gap at the five, but the Hornets’ current centre in Moussa Diabate, for all his rebounding prowess, averages 3.2 points per game, and the Sixers should be able to cover the defensive loss. The Hornets just don’t have much in the way of offensive firepower without Ball, and up against a Sixers team coming into some improved form and with George and Maxey now together, they will likely struggle unless they can recreate the likely unsustainable defensive form they have displayed over the past two games.

Magic +5.5 | $1.89 with Unibet

This looms as perhaps the best game of the day, with two teams going about establishing themselves as genuine contenders in the Eastern Conference going head to head, with the winner guaranteed to win East Group A and advance through to the Bracket Stage of the NBA Cup. As expected, the Knicks are proving to be a tough team to beat this season, with a really well-rounded starting five helping to lead them to a 12-8 record and 4th spot in the West, and a 3-0 record in the NBA Cup. It hasn’t been an entirely seamless transition for the players they have brought in, with Mikal Bridges in particular being the subject of some criticism, but they are still a team with very few weaknesses. The Magic, meanwhile, were expected to struggle to maintain the improvement they have shown over the past couple of seasons in the extended absence of Paolo Banchero, but they have done the opposite. Franz Wagner has been a primary reason for that, taking over the starring role for this young team and establishing himself as a top-20 player in the league, but the likes of Jalen Suggs and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope have made them a really good team at both ends of the floor. And their form is only getting better. The Magic have won six games in a row and 12 of their past 13, and in the NBA Cup have a 3-0 record and a points differential of +60. Though on paper the Knicks might be a better team, the Magic are playing better basketball at the moment, meaning the 5.5-point head start NBA betting sites have given them looks particularly juicy. Of course, it’s worth noting that this game is being played in New York, where the Knicks are 6-2, while the Magic are 6-7 on the road (compared to 9-0 at home). But that record for the Magic is not reflective of their recent form. They have won four on the trot outside of Orlando, a run that started with Wagner’s game-winning step-back three against the Lakers. Making this bet even more attractive is the fact that the loser is still a very good chance of making the Bracket Stage of the NBA Cup as a wildcard. In each Conference, the team with the best record that didn’t finish on top of their group also advances. That wildcard will definitely have a 3-1 record, and which team advances will come down to points differential, meaning if the Magic are down they will have an incentive to limit the damage as much as possible. They are a great chance of winning this game and easily covering this line as a result, but even if they are losing, it would be a surprise to see them do so by all that much.

Rockets -1.5 | $1.85 with PlayUp

The Rockets are absolutely rolling. With a talented young core and a couple of savvy veterans to complement them, they showed substantial improvement last season and always had the capacity to keep growing in 2024-25. But few would have had them pegged for a 15-6 record and the second seed in the Western Conference more than a quarter of the way into the season. It has been at the defensive end of the floor where much of their improvement has come – they boast the second best defensive rating in the league – while offensively they are around league average. But whatever the formula, it’s been working. They have won nine of their last 11 games and their last three on the trot, the latest of which saw them hold off the only team above them in the West – the Oklahoma City Thunder – by three points. They are a genuinely good team, and unless they are beaten easily and the Trail Blazers beat the Clippers by a bunch, will finish atop West Group A in the NBA Cup. The Kings, meanwhile, sit at the bottom of that group with a 0-3 NBA Cup record. That’s not truly reflective of where they are at as a team, but they have been underwhelming this season to date. They currently boast a 9-12 record having lost six of their last seven games, including their last two to the Spurs and the Trail Blazers. The loss before that came to the Thunder team which the Rockets just beat, and by 21 points no less. The Kings have talent on their roster but are not functioning well at all at the moment. What’s more, they have only lit the beam – which they do when they win at home – on four occasions this season, with a 4-7 record at Golden 1 Center particularly poor. There is a big gap between these two teams at the moment, and the 1.5-point line set by betting sites simply does not look like enough.