NBA Expert Tips and Best Bets | Dec 22

Friday, Australia time, will see many around the country wrap up their work obligations for the year, and across the Pacific there will be eight NBA games to help get you through that final day. With a number of really intriguing games included among those, it’s set to be an exciting day of basketball, and these are three of the best value tips from those games. 

 Bulls -3.5| $1.90 with PlayUp 

For all of the optimism surrounding the Spurs and in particular Victor Wembanyama – and justifiable optimism at that – the reality is they are not a good team just yet, as evidenced by the fact that they are three games clear at the bottom of the Western Conference. They finally ended their enormous losing streak against the Lakers a couple of days ago, but since then they’ve suffered a 36-point loss to the Pelicans and a 13-point loss to the Bucks. They struggle to compete against most teams in the league, and while the Bulls are not world beaters they are playing good basketball of late, and the Spurs will probably need a much bigger line than the 3.5 points given to them by NBA betting sites. With Zach LaVine out the Bulls have actually been pretty good – they’ve won seven of their last ten, with those losses coming against the Bucks (in overtime), the Nuggets and the Heat, while in their last two games they’ve beaten the Lakers and the Sixers. They are playing like a playoff team right now and certainly a hell of a lot better than the Spurs, which makes it curious that this line is so low. The Bulls should be able to cover this one without too much trouble.

Clippers to win | $2.40 with GetSetBet 

This should be a really, really good game between two teams which look likely to be finishing the season towards the top end of the Western Conference. The Thunder have improved drastically this season, with the continued brilliance of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander combining with the addition of the prodigious Chet Holmgren, and the improvement of guys like Jalen Williams. Their 17-8 record is the second best in the West, which makes it tough to pick against them at home, but that is testament to just how well the Clippers are playing right now. They’ve withstood an enormous amount of criticism for their early struggles after James Harden joined them, but they appear to have well and truly figured out how to fit all their pieces into one cohesive whole and are now playing like probably the best team in the league right now. They’ve now won nine games in a row, many of them by big margins and against good teams, and as good as the Thunder are, this Clippers team at $2.40 looks mighty tempting. This should be a close game which either side could win, but at long odds the Clippers certainly look like good value in this game.

Over 246.5 Total Match Points | $1.90 with BlueBet

Why change a winning formula? All season long, the Pacers’ over bets have been pretty fruitful, regardless of how high the betting agencies set the over/under. Aside from a game against the league’s number one defence in the Timberwolves, the Pacers have cleared this total every game since the In-Season Tournament ended, making them 5-1 against this spread in that time. Most of the time they’ve cleared it easily, too – all of those games have seen at least 254 points scored, and three of them have gone over 260. It doesn’t really matter who their opponent is at the moment, but with Ja Morant back the Grizzlies should return to some of their more high scoring ways anyway. That wasn’t entirely the case in his first game back, when he hit a game-winner to give them a 115-113 victory, but against the Pacers this should be a lightning fast up and down game, exhausting enough to watch, let alone play. There will be plenty of fast break opportunities, a lot of quick possessions, and hopefully, a whole lot of points in yet another Pacers over.