76ers vs Celtics and Suns vs Warriors NBA Best Bets (5/9/23): Expert Picks & Predictions
Find best bets for Tuesday night’s two game slate with the Philadelphia 76ers taking on the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets looking to use their home court advantage against the Phoenix Suns. Both Denver and Boston are sizable favorites heading into tonight as the Celtics are currently -7.5 against the 76ers while Denver has been getting steamed up to -6 against the Suns.
76ers vs Celtics and Suns vs Nuggets Best Bets
Just like that, Denver’s 2-0 series lead has magically disappeared after the Suns closed out narrow contests in games three and four. Even without Chris Paul, the Suns found success by crashing the glass to generate second chance scoring opportunities.
As for the Sixers and Celtics, they have battled back and forth in surprisingly tight contests. Joel Embiid is rounding back into form after sustaining a knee injury in the previous round, abusing the smaller Celtics interior and opening up the rest of their offense with the Celtics having to play help defense.
Denver Nuggets -5.5 -115
Even in their loss, the Nuggets still looked like the far better team in both games three and four. They have struggled to counter punch the Suns’ adjustments, leaving Jokic out to fend for himself against the Suns increased pressure on the boards. This is in large part of having to stretch out to respect Kevin Durant at the four position, leaving Jokic alone at the rim.
Going into game five, the Nuggets may sag off of Cam Payne as he has struggled to find consistency from deep. This gives the Nuggets an extra body in the interior to negate the Suns rebounding, as well as cut off mid-range looks from a driving Devin Booker.
After slowing down the Suns scoring pace, the Nuggets should have no issue in comfortably pulling ahead as Nikola Jokic generates high quality looks with ease. Michael Porter Jr is also bound to regress back towards the mean with his three-point shooting, giving the Nuggets a more versatile attack to stretch out the Suns defense.
Denver/Suns u227.5 -110
In correlation with the Nuggets potential defensive adjustments to slow down the Suns scoring, I will take a piece on the under at no lower than 225.5.
As previously mentioned, the Suns have been able to surpass the Nuggets scoring pace by attacking the glass and garnering second chance scoring opportunities. Extending possessions and attacking the newfound gaps in defensive coverage after scrambling for the boards.
Should the Nuggets adjust to negate this, then the Suns scoring pace will dip back down to play more friendly towards the under. Especially with the Nuggets most likely continuing their offensive assault, revolving around Jokic in the interior.
Not exactly settling on the stomach knowing they have only gone under this number once in the series, but the emphasis on negating the Suns extended possession opportunities will go a long way in slowing down their scoring pace.
Celtics 1H -3.5 -115
The Celtics downfall in game four stemmed from a sleepy start to the contest, seemingly not waking up until the fourth quarter in a spirited losing overtime effort.
This is in large part of looking like they have never dealt with a zone defense before, failing to adjust and looking flat footed around the perimeter. It wasn’t until Tatum started relentlessly attacking the interior, getting fouled for free throws or shifting the coverage to get a shooter open at the perimeter mid drive to the basket.
Expecting more of the same early on in this one, the Celtics should start out hot knowing what they have to do to beat the Sixers zone with Tatum and Brown attacking the middle. This will hopefully force the Sixers to switch back to man-to-man defense as they lack the on-ball coverage to stay in front of the Celtics go-to scorers.
