NBA Expert Tips and Best Bets | May 8

The Celtics vs Knicks Conference semi-finals could hardly have started off in more exciting fashion on Tuesday, but it was arguably not even the best game of the day after the Thunder vs Nuggets game which followed. The visitors came away with the chocolates in both of those games, the Knicks fighting back from 20 points down to win in overtime and the Nuggets winning on another Aaron Gordon game-winner after a remarkable comeback in the final couple of minutes. Interest in both series is now sky high and those openers have set us up for an enthralling Thursday of Game 2s. Check out our best three NBA tips and predictions for those two games below.

Derrick White over 15.5 points @ $1.90 with QuestBet

If Game 1 of this series reminded us of anything, it’s that the Celtics will shoot, shoot and shoot some more, regardless of how many of them go in. They set the ignominious record of most missed threes in a playoff game at 45, and Derrick White was responsible for a large number of those. He missed 11 of his 16 threes on the day, but the five that he hit as well as a solitary two-pointer and a couple of free throws took him to 19 points in 44 minutes on the day. That was despite what was a relatively ordinary shooting performance from a guy who hits close to 40% of his long-range attempts on the season, and yet still he cleared his points total set for this game by betting agencies relatively comfortably. That was a higher number of threes and overall shots than White generally takes, but even so he has been passing the 15.5-point total very regularly of late. White scored at least 16 points in four of the five games the Celtics took to beat the Celtics as well as this first game against the Knicks, and with his final game of the regular season also yielding 19 points he’s now hit this number in six of his last seven games. If White takes 16 three-point attempts again in Game 2 it’s very likely that he’ll scoot past the 16-point mark we need, but while it might be ambitious to hope for him to take that many, he should at least be in double figures when it comes to three-point attempts. As long as he scores at a reasonably efficient rate, which he generally does, he should be able to score 16 or more points for the seventh time in eight games.

Russell Westbrook to score 15+ points @ $2.40 with Unibet

Russell Westbrook has done plenty of damage in Paycom Center in OKC in the past, and he once again looked very comfortable in front of his old fans there in Game 1. Westbrook, as he has been for many months for the Nuggets, was a valuable sparkplug off the bench, scoring 18 points in 30 minutes and providing another option in what can at times be a one-dimensional offence as a result of the team’s heavy reliance on Nikola Jokic. But those 18 points were far from an anomaly. Westbrook has been playing solid basketball since the playoffs began, and in his seven games in the postseason so far has scored at least 14 points in all but one of them. He has been uncharacteristically solid from beyond the three-point line, shooting above 35% in the first round series against the Clippers and hitting at least one a game, though given his history that wouldn’t be something we would be particularly keen to bank on continuing to happen. But in Game 1 against the Thunder, it didn’t. Westbrook went just 1-5 from three but still managed to put up 18 points, with a couple of buckets in transition and some really aggressive work against the big boys like Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein on the inside yielding him quite a few points. That is far more repeatable than hitting threes for Westbrook, which bodes well for his chances of continuing to put up decent numbers this series. Betting sites still have the former MVPs line set at around his season average – which is 13.3 – but he’s been getting more minutes and taking a good number of shots for some time now, and given he has got within one point of hitting 15 in all but one playoff game so far, the better than even money on offer looks like good value.

Nikola Jokic to score 40+ points @ $7.50 with PlayUp

Going for a long shot here, but after the way Nikola Jokic played in Game 1 it’s certainly not out of the realms of possibility that the three-time MVP hits the 40-point mark again. The Serbian was good without dominating through the first three quarters, with the Thunder’s swarming interior defence making it difficult for him to have his typically unparallelled influence on the game. But as he has shown he is capable of doing so often in the past, he took his game to another level when his team needed it most. The Thunder continued to absolutely hound Jokic throughout the final quarter, but he could have had ten men playing on him and it wouldn’t likely have slowed him down. He bumbled his way down the lane time after time after time in that fourth quarter, with his delicate touch around the rim, numerous trips to the free throw line and a three-pointer or two for good measure yielding him 18 points for the quarter and taking him to 42 for the game. The Nuggets are simply not as deep or talented as the Thunder, so the reality is that for them to continue winning in this series they will likely need more similar performances from their star centre. Jamal Murray might pop up here and there with a big game, but he has been inconsistent so far in these playoffs and went missing after a hot start in Game 1. Jokic is clearly the key to the Nuggets chances and he will be well aware of the fact that if they are to keep winning, he will likely be doing a lot of scoring. Another 40-point game is a lot to ask, but Jokic is capable of hitting that number on any given night and after the way he finished last game, the $7.50 offered by NBA betting sites like PlayUp looks like decent value.