Two NBA Must-Bets in Pivotal Matchups Tonight

My confidence is through the roof fellas. We've had a great read on the Association in the last week on The Yap, inlucing 2-0 on yesterday's whales of Heat ML (+125) and Hawks ML (-130) and 9-3 overall on the league since last week. I'm back to being hungry to find winners on sides as the season winds down and the playoffs start soon and I am more than ready to attack the rest of the season and the postseason. 

There are a ton of great games on the slate today; Just one game with blowout potential/spread that is 10+ points or more, and it's the Hornets playing the alreday-eliminated Nets. Suns @ Magic, Cavs @ Lakers, Raptors @ Pistons, Knicks @ Rockets and Trail Blazers @ Clippers are all matchups involving playoff teams looking to better their postioning in the race to the postseason. As you could guess, we are attacking the two bolded games.

If you really have been into betting the NBA this season you have 1000% been burned on both of these teams multiple times at this point. The Knicks have struggled at times to respect the spread in games where they're heavy favs or even slight favs, whereas the Rockets simply have not been able to come through in sharp spots all year. 

This game is tricky on paper when diving into it. The original read is the Knicks are off two losses, both being to good teams in the Thunder and Hornets, both on the road. The Rockets are off two wins over the Pelicans and Grizzlies after losing an absolute stunner in OT to the T-Wolves, a game where the NOD was the Rockets and Trent and I were in absolute piss. Not Shady Biev tho cuz he doesn't tail. Fuck u Shady Biev. 

The angle I'm taking is simple. The Rockets were a public side against the TWolves three games ago and a ton of people got burned off that outraegous 15-point collapse in OT. Since then, they've found their stride on offense allbeit it has been against two shit teams. The Knicks are off two tough road games and continue on this road trip after the Rockets. With the Knicks barely edging out Houston in New York just a little over a month ago and Houston desperately needing a big win for momentum on top of the betting public assumingly being hesitant to go back to the Rockets, this is a spot where we have to take Houston. 

Houston needs a big win like this to have any sort of confidence going into the playoffs. They get it done at home vs a top team in the Eastern Conference.

The Trail Blazers and Clippers have been fighting for play-in positioning for what seems like the last three months. These teams fill the 9 and 8 seeds respectively and the Blazers sit just a game back of LA. 

The Clippers have been on fire for much of the second-half of the season after climbing out of a massive rut, which at one point they sat at 9-25 and at the bottom of the league without a first-round draft pick for next season. Since then, they've managed to climb this whole way back up and actually ride a 5-game winning streak heading into this game. For much of this second half they have managed to beat pretty solid teams and stay competitive when playing the top of the league but have also struggled to put away teams near their caliber or even near the bottom of the league. It took a Kawhi Leonard game-winner and massive comeback to even beat the Pacers just two games ago.

Now, they face a .500 Trail Blazers who start a road-trip after a 3-1 homestand. The Clippers have won the first two of this 4-game regular season series pretty handily and sit as only 5-point favs at home. 

The Blazers have been a hard team to figure out this season and it's hard to imagine bettors running to take them tonight on the road. Checking the Green Book (DK) splits on this game matched that feeling, with just 33% of bets and 29% of handle on Portland tonight and even less taking them to win outright.

The Clippers have shown no reason why they should be this public of a bet, and with a short line like this combiend with the fact that the Trail Blazers are without Shaedon Sharpe and Jerami Grant until next week, I think the Blazers get it done tonight on the backs of Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija and beat the Clippers outright.

Let's stay fucking nice. Thank you for reading and DM me if you're tailing!