NBA Expert Tips and Best Bets | January 30

It’s a big day of NBA on Tuesday Australia time, with 24 of the NBA’s 30 teams taking to the court across 12 games. And there are plenty of big ones in amongst that – the Cavs take on the Clippers in the first game of the day, the Timberwolves and Thunder go head to head in a top of the Eastern Conference clash, while the Nuggets and Bucks face off later in the day in what could easily be a preview of the NBA Finals. These are my three best bets for the day’s action. 

Clippers -2.5  | $1.94 with GetSetBet 

The Clippers are arguably the best team in the league right now – a sentence nobody would have expected to be uttered a few games into the James Harden experiment. But with Harden playing great basketball alongside Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, and Russell Westbrook excelling in decreased minutes off the bench, this team is blowing by every team put in front of them, and generally relatively easily. Harking back to the beginning of December they have lost just four games, winning 22 along the way, and they only seem to be getting better. They have won each of their last five games by at least 11 points, with wins in that time coming against some very good teams including the Thunder, Lakers, and most recently the Celtics, who they dominated to en route to a 115-96 victory. The Cavaliers have been playing extremely well of late too, winning nine of their last ten even in the absence of two of their most important players in Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, but impressive as they have been it’s hard to back any team to cover a line as small as that set by NBA betting sites for this game against the Clippers. Leonard and co have won by at least the 3 points they need to cover this line in 22 of their last 26 games, and as good as the Cavs have been of late they can continue that trend in this game.  

Lakers to win | $1.89 with BlueBet

The Rockets have been a welcome improver this season, with the development of the likes of Alperun Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr, as well as the additions of the more seasoned Fred Van Vleet and Dillon Brooks, dragging them off the bottom of the Western Conference and into playoff contention. But as impressive as they have been over the first half of the season, the reality of the difficulties which come with remaining competitive for an 82 game season are beginning to make themselves known. The Rockets, having gone 18-16 over their first 34 games, have lost eight of their last 11, and it hasn’t exactly only been to good teams. Their most recent game saw them lose to the Nets while they went down in overtime to the Trail Blazers a couple prior, and their three wins during that span include an overtime victory against the Jazz and a two-point win over the lowly Pistons, while on their home court, previously such a fortress, they have lost six of their last ten. The Lakers haven’t been setting the world on fire but have won five of their last seven, the latest of which was an incredible double overtime game which saw LeBron James put up historic numbers at the age of 39 while going head to head with 35-year-old Steph Curry, who managed a lazy 46 points. The Lakers do have a tendency to play to the level of the team they are playing against, but there is no doubting that they are playing the better basketball of these two teams at the minute. Having had a day to recover from that gruelling game, they should be too strong against the struggling Rockets and look like good value at nearly even money with most betting agencies. 

Jazz to win | $1.97 with PlayUp 

The Jazz have been one of the biggest surprises of 2024 to date, turning around what looked destined to be a pretty miserable season and seemingly putting themselves right into playoff contention. Will Hardie has got this mish-mash roster playing some quality basketball, leading them to nine wins in ten games harking back to New Year’s Eve including the dismantling of some far more highly fancied opponents. Three losses subsequently followed, but aside from a blowout against the Pelicans, they weren’t exactly poor performances – one was a five-point loss to the Thunder, the other an OT defeat in Houston. And since then they have bounced back with two easy wins over poor teams, and with their tails up they should be favourites to win this game. But they’re not. The Nets certainly aren’t a bad team, but they are not a good one and have lost 12 of their last 15 games. They arrested a losing skid with a good, tight win over the Rockets in their last game, but they also got one of Cam Thomas’ occasional big nights in that game, something which is far from assured on a nightly basis. With one team entering this game having won 11 of their last 15 and the other having won just three in that same time period, these odds shouldn’t be as close as they are and certainly shouldn’t have the Jazz as underdogs. This looks like a good value spot for them to continue their hot form.