Best NBA Picks and Predictions Today [Dec 15th]

Kate Constable:

It was quite the production last night when he broke the record, I mean to stop the whole game and they didn’t just stop it for like a 30 second time out. That was a couple minutes. We got hugs all around the arena, Madison Square Garden’s going nuts. Josh, what did you think of it all?

Josh C:

Yeah, a little bit of both, to be honest, like I loved it and you know, I bought into it a little bit, but then at the same time, it just, it carried on a little. And I think the fact that we’ve been counting down for this for however many weeks now it’s, I think like Alex said, it got a little bit much, especially as we got to game day and knowing full well, it was going to happen this game. You know, it also takes away, I guess the surprise aspect, if you will, the “Wow” factor. And yeah, the fact that he’s not retired either guys, like that wasn’t his final game and he didn’t do it in his final game. So, let’s just enjoy him while he’s still around and still breaking records. And then when it’s all said and done, we can do a big fiasco for him.

Kate Constable:

Yeah. That record’s going to be very hard to break being he has so much of his career left that I just don’t see how anyone else is going to even get close to that based on the speed at which he’s hitting all of these threes. So congrats to Steph Curry, great accomplishment, but let’s move on and talk about the Hawks and Magic. We’re going to get to them in a second, quite an exciting game, but first let’s check out our record.

Kate Constable:

We are looking fantastic, guys. We’ve been doing great this whole season 145 and 122, a great overall record. Let’s keep it rolling today.

Kate Constable:

About those Hawks and the Magic. Hawks are on the road tonight. They are in Orlando eight point favorite on the road that is. Total set at 224. Both of these teams have been struggling as of late, the Magic have been struggling all season, but the Hawks have lost five of their last seven. That includes a loss to Houston on Monday as a 10 point favorite in that one, the Hawks, or the Magic, rather, one of the worst teams in the NBA odds coming into this game with a five game losing streak. Josh, you are playing the over in this game at 224. Tell me why you like that.

Josh C:

Yeah, on the over it looks like it’s going down as well. So you might want to just sit and grab a better number, I think in a little bit, but look, simply, I think at Atlanta are just going to be able to get to their spots and score pretty much at will. Here you look at, at the type of offense that they run, teams with similar sort of stars of play seem to have no problem scoring against the Magic. Not that anyone has problem scoring against the Magic, but you know, getting into those pick and rolls a lot of mid-range jumpers, being able to get to the room at will, shooting efficiently from deep. You know, Orlando’s not going to do anything to disrupt those things. I think we get a bit of a bounce back as well from the Hawks as well after what was a pretty lackluster fourth quarter in particular against Houston.

Josh C:

But every time the Hawks have played a bottom five team defensively, they’ve put up pretty big numbers, offensively, looking at that Rockets game in particular. You’ve got the Pistons before that, the Thunder before that, the Hornets a couple of times this season. So they really do feed offensively against these bottom tier teams. That should happen again today. Defensively, I still don’t trust them at all. S.

Josh C:

O I did look at a Hawks team total initially, but you know, I think the Magic should be able to hold their own offensively at least for a little while and take advantage as well. You look at the type of offense that they run. And it’s kind of in line with teams that have had success against the Hawks as well. I think the pace projects to be a little bit higher than league average. So, there’s no reason why both these teams don’t score close to 110-80 in my opinion. And it’s interesting to see the market coming down because I am a little bit bullish on this total. And I had it closer to about a 229. So I do show value here, but like I said, given the markets going the other way, maybe just sit and wait and see if you can get yourself a better entry point.

Kate Constable:

I am going to take Atlanta tonight, lay in the eight, quite a bit of points. But to your point, Josh, they’re going to be able to score anywhere on the court tonight against this Orlando defense. And the Hawks’ issue lately has been blowing double digit leads late in the game. They gave up 44 points to the Rockets in the fourth quarter to lose that game. That was a big issue with the Hawks last year. And that’s ultimately what led to their former head coach, Lloyd Pierce being fired for. And so I see Nate McMillan writing the ship here, turning things around. He doesn’t want that same fate. So he’s going to find a way to get his team back on track and what better way to do that than a date with the Orlando Magic. So I like the Hawks here. I had to minus eight. Alex, any thoughts on this game?

Alex Christenson:

Close, of course, and I’m sure this will come as no surprise to you, Kate, to possibly play the Hawks team total over here. Again, like Josh said, not to repeat everything, but they really beat up on some of these bad teams. And I think the over’s a solid play as well. Just wonder, with Orlando being up and down again, I like kind of the less variance if you will, of taking the team total versus the over.

Alex Christenson:

In general, it’s been tough for Atlanta to put anything together, I think what we’re seeing is the value honestly, of De’Andre Hunter, as well as Bogdan Bogdanović, Bogdanović is a really stabilizing force on the offensive end. De’Andre Hunter is arguably their best defensive player and they’ve just really struggled to slow teams down. You know, again, Bogdanović can come out and kind of takes a little bit of the flow out of the game. If the Hawks need to slow things down on defense Hunter is just a huge piece. So, once you kind of lose control of the pace and you start to lose some things defensively, I think that’s why we’re starting to see some more adverse results here for this Hawks team. So hopefully they can get healthier sooner rather later, but I think you guys are both barking up the right tree.

Kate Constable:

All right, well, I’m taking the Hawk minus eight, Josh taking the over 224 and Alex always has his eye on those team totals. Moving on to the Houston Rockets in Cleveland tonight to take on the Cavalier’s. Cavs are a nine and a half point favorite. This total was sitting at 216, 2 of the hottest teams in the league right now. I never expected that sentence to come out of my mouth this season, but here we are. Both teams have won eight of their last 10 games. Cavs are on a four game win streak right now. Josh, you are playing a team total in this game. Tell me about it.

Josh C:

I am going to be rolling with the Cleveland Cavaliers. A little late to the party, but hey, we got there. I think that they’re going to be able to pretty much tear this Rockets team apart. Houston, obviously with a plethora of injuries and absences today. It seems Christian Wood, probably the most notable, Eric Gordon, another one to the list. So it’s going to be hard to see how they keep pace in a game like this. But speaking of pace, we’ve seen Houston basically run up and down the floor, basically all season long. And I don’t think that changes today, either. The Cavs, when they play against these up-tempo teams, they seem to be happy to return serve. You know, they don’t necessarily try to slow things down too much. And I think especially against a team like Houston, where offensively, they’re going to be able to get whatever they want.

Josh C:

I think we do end up getting a bit of a shoot out here. And one that the Cavs obviously will favor. I think just given the mismatches that they have offensively in particular, Houston defensively don’t really offer a whole lot of resistance even during this win streak. So for me, the Cavs I think are going to be able to get to their spots inside, bully their way towards the rim, crash that offensive rebounding category as well. I think Houston, one of the worst teams in the league at defensive rebounds. So not a position you want to be in against a Cleveland team, that’s for certain. But for me, this team total looks a little bit inviting. I did look towards a full game overs here as well, like the Atlanta one, but I just think I can trust the Cavs offense more than I can trust a depleted Houston team where we don’t really know what we’re going to get from them, given they’re missing so many important offensive pieces in this one.

Kate Constable:

Alex laying nine and a half points with the Cavs is not something we’ve seen in recent seasons or anything that many people thought would be the case this year, but this is where we’re at with this team. What’s made them so successful in covering the spread this season?

Alex Christenson:

Defense. I think it’s the impact of Evan Mobley, the impact of Jared Allen, as much as Collin Sexton is a solid player and could be an interesting piece. Him being off the floor has really given this team an identity of just kind of being a lockdown defensive team. We’re going to run when we want to, we’re going to get as many points as we need, but we’re just basically going to be able to lock all windows and doors against all these other teams. They’ve just been a really spectacular team and as crazy as it sounds, I mean, you’d be making a lot of money if you just blind bet online the Cavaliers, you’re up a little over 13 units on the season, again, just at the close, I mean, who knows how much better you’re doing if you’ve got a little CLV on some of these opening numbers.

Alex Christenson:

So I think the Cavs are great. My only concern here, a little bit of a look ahead spot for Cleveland. They have to go to Milwaukee tomorrow to play what I think is going to be a much more important game than anybody realized at this point. So maybe looking ahead a little bit there again, I think Cleveland’s the right play. I don’t mind them in some sort of angle. I think Josh is right. Even if they can’t cover that big number, I think they are going to put up a lot of points on this Houston team. So a little put off by the look ahead spot, but I think Josh is looking at the right angle.

Kate Constable:

Josh is taking the team total over… What is that, josh? Over 224? No that’s with the Hawks. Josh has an over 113 and a half team total for the Cavs tonight. There we go. All right. The Charlotte Hornets taking on the San Antonio Spurs. Hornets are slowly but surely getting the band all back together after the team was hit hard by health and safety protocols and some injuries, Terry Rozier, David McDaniels, PJ Washington, Cody Martin, Nick Richards. Wow. That is a lot of players. They are all back. However, they are still without LaMelo Ball and Mason Plumley tonight. Three and a half point dog on the road in San Antonio. Totals sitting at 226, Alex and Josh, you guys are both playing the Spurs minus three and a half tonight. Makes me feel like I should get in on that action there. Alex, start with you on this one. What makes you like this line?

Alex Christenson:

The Spurs have been playing really fantastic basketball and I like the way you described it. Wow. That’s a lot of players, you look at the Charlotte injury report. It’s just been the biggest part of the injury report for about a week now. Yes, you got a couple guys coming back, but we’ve seen teams be slow and kind of ramping up: A. Those players’ level of fitness and B. Reintegrating them into what’s going on.

Alex Christenson:

You look at the San Antonio Spurs, that’s me knocking on wood for their health and safety. They’ve been fine. That team’s been okay so far. They haven’t seemed to have bumped into any issues. It’s a fantastic matchup for them. They have the guards and wings to kind of punish what the Hornets are going to try to do, especially without LaMelo Ball. Even with Mason Plumley in or out, it doesn’t matter. There’s no one at the rim to slow this team down. I think the Spurs are going to have a really, really good matchup here. They’ve been playing some solid basketball, again, only 2-3 in their last five games, but losses to the Nuggets, Knicks and Suns don’t really bother me that much. I think they’re again, really trying to put things together and I think this will be a nice win for them before they get their road trip started on Friday.

Kate Constable:

Yeah, won six of the last nine, they’ve covered in seven of those games and they’re scoring 115 points per 100 possessions throughout that time. Not a good sign for a Hornets team that ranks dead last in defensive reading. Josh, you’re also on Spurs minus three and a half. Tell me about your pick.

Josh C:

Yeah, look much the same. I think one point that I do like to make that Alex already sort of touched on is these teams who have been decimated that get a whole heap of players back at once. That conditioning factor is a big thing. You know, they don’t just hit the ground running. I think it’s going to take a little bit of time to get their legs underneath them again. So, that’s certainly something to watch here. I think the Spurs also just have a whole magnitude of advantages in this particular matchup, the way the Hornets like to attack the basket, push in transition, the Spurs defensively, the two best things they do is sort of defend the rim and get back in transition. So it’s going to be hard, I think for the Hornets to find consistent offense. The flip side as well, the Spurs attacking that rim relentlessly, I think they’re going to have a ton of success in that.

Josh C:

You know, that pick and roll action is something that the Hornets seem to struggle with no matter who they play. So San Antonio should be able to get to their spots in and around that mid-range in and around the rim. And you know, they have a significant rebounding advantage as well in this matchup. So all those things basically should come to fruition I imagine, in a game like this. And the Spurs, in my opinion, should comfortably cover what is a pretty favorable line given that I kind of come out closer to a five in this one on, especially with LaMelo Ball out.

Kate Constable:

All right. Well, Alex and Josh have both taken the Spurs minus three and a half over the Hornets tonight. The Minnesota Timberwolves on the last game of a small little road trip here in Denver tonight to take on the Nuggets. Nuggets are a four point favorite. This total’s at 223 and a half. The Wolves just snapped a five game losing streak with a win in Portland on Sunday. Although the Portland Trailblazers are mess of their own right now. They’re back home, the Wolves are that is, on Friday to face the Lakers. Alex, you are playing the Nuggets minus four tonight as I am as well. What value do you see in this line?

Alex Christenson:

I think the Denver Nuggets are finally starting to get to a bye low point. It may have been a couple games ago, but the market still, I believe is a little bit overreacting to no Michael Porter Jr. Still no Jamal Murray. The Nuggets have gotten everybody else healthier. Jokić continues to be just an absolute lifesaver for them, night in night out. You look at the injury report, looks like Will Barton’s going to play tonight. Looks like Aaron Gordon’s going to play tonight. And they’ve just been a really solid team.

Alex Christenson:

You mentioned Minnesota, last game of their road trip and the last game of the road trip at altitude. It’s just historically just been a really bad spot for teams. I think the Nuggets again are starting to put it together. They’re starting to beat these teams by double digits. They’re getting a put in almost 20 point win… or no, I’m sorry. A 15 point win up on somebody the other day. It’s just, I really like the direction the Nuggets are going. The Timberwolves look like they’re going to be without D’Angelo Russell, he’s still questionable tonight. So just the Nuggets, a much better team and a much better spot. I have this close to like six, almost seven points as I start to tweak some things. So Nuggets minus four and a half out to five looks great to me.

Kate Constable:

I like the Nuggets as well. Today is Nikola Jokić day. 12… What is it? 12:15, 5 years ago today he entered the Nuggets’ starting lineup, taking a place of Jusuf Nurkić, and he has since been in the starting lineup and become the face of the Denver Nuggets, the reigning MVP. So I am going with the Nuggets tonight solely because this is Nikola Jokić day. I’m all X’s and O’s aside, I’m just on the Nuggets tonight. I do like Jokić and Karl-Anthony Towns going against each other. I think Jokić is a much better player. I think he will have the edge in this one tonight, but just going to kind of take this one as, as a fun bet today with that whole angle and take the Nuggets minus four. Josh, in terms of the total here, any thoughts on whether this is going to be, this is one of the higher totals of the day, 223 and a half. Is this going to get up there?

Josh C:

I think it honestly, and we said this a couple times, comes down to whether D’Angelo Russell plays or not, just because of how much of an impact he makes for this team offensively and the drop off when he’s not there. He is absolutely drastic in their offensive efficiency and consistency. So, that’s certainly something worth keeping an eye on. I think if he’s out and this line doesn’t move a whole heap, then I will almost certainly be on Denver as well. He did go through a shoot around yesterday, but like you said, with that Lakers game on deck, I’m not sure if they sit him here in favor of that game or do they just bring him straight back here and they figure that they’ve got a good spot potentially in Denver. I don’t know. It’s a tough one to make sense of.

Josh C:

So I’m probably just going to sit and wait to see what the news is there before I find any sort of entry into this one, market-wise, whether it’s that total or whether it’s joining you guys on the Nuggets minus four, which I think is probably the only way you can play the game anyway.

Kate Constable:

Well, that is what we are on, Nuggets minus four tonight over the Wolves. Questions for today, feel free to continue sending those in. We always love to hear from you. First question, Magic first half, what do we think about that? Right now, Magic are plus.. Ooh, that’s for the first quarter… Plus four, for the half, team total there it’s 55 and a half. Alex, you kind of giving me the “eh, maybe, maybe not.”

Alex Christenson:

I have it just about on the at number. I actually might even have a little bit of value on Atlanta if it’s as short as minus four, to be honest. They’ve started pretty well this year, even the last couple weeks, especially against some of these bad teams. So I think that’s a tough spot for Orlando, and maybe look for some spots with them live. I think the Hawks love a nice start to this game.

Kate Constable:

All right. Let’s take a look at one other game. Just kind of want to get you guys’ thoughts on, we have a large slate today. It’s hard with so many players entering in health and safety protocol. How are you guys factoring that into when you’re looking at lines and capping these games, Josh?

Josh C:

Yeah, I think we’re getting to a point now where getting on early might not be so beneficial at least for the next month until we sort of ride through this wave. You’re playing a game of roulette, I think as someone coined in one of our group chats, and that’s basically what it feels like right now where you don’t really know what you’re going to wake up to most days. So playing games closer to tip off and, and having all the information available and knowing exactly who’s in and who’s out is probably the best way to tackle games right now. And hey, even that doesn’t always work out, the Joel Embiid situation a couple days ago, I think caught all of us by surprise and Steph Curry with that as well. So, I don’t actually know what the best approach is right now, to be honest, but utilizing all possible information certainly seems to be the way to go as opposed to trying to get on too early and beat the markets, given the volatility of the league at the moment.

Kate Constable:

The Bucks play the Pacers tonight in Milwaukee, Giannis Antetokounmpo in health and safety protocols. Based on what we’re seeing with these teams is once one person goes, there’s a slew of players that follow. So who knows if we’ll see more players from the Bucks being in protocols, same with the Lakers Talen Horton-Tucker. He was put into protocols yesterday, Lakers canceled their practice prior to flying to Dallas tonight. They’re playing the Mavs. So two games that I noticed none of us had on our list today for games we were betting, partially on my end because who knows what’s going to happen with those two teams, but definitely something to keep an eye on as we move forward. And as the whole league… Leagues, I should say, NFL is struggling with this, NHL. It’s all over the place. So definitely something to keep an eye on going forward, take a look at our best bets for the day.

Kate Constable:

Not too many for us, but a couple team totals, couple overs. Hawks, and then Alex and I got that play on the Nuggets. So feel free to join us on that. Let us know if you do in the chat feature, we would love to hear from you. We also have something else that we would like to show you guys today. This is pretty cool. We’ve polled over a thousand different people to help us build our best player. All the qualities that a player has, what do you think is most important and, and what would you pull from these different guys? So building the best NBA forward, we have a lot of qualities from Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant, only three players to build this perfect forward. Do you guys agree with this, Alex? Who else would you add?

Alex Christenson:

You know, there’s a couple names missing here. I mean, it’s tough to say that you shouldn’t be having a lot of LeBron James and, and Giannis and a little bit of Kevin Durant here. I think the Draymond Green kind of gets a tough rap here, when you look at maybe off court swagger, when you look at defense and things like that, I think I definitely would’ve put Draymond’s hat in the ring there. Somebody like PJ Tucker even would be interesting from kind of a defense perspective, but you know, again, it’s good to see Giannis over here a little bit. I will say, I think LeBron’s getting a little bit too much credit here as the choice for athleticism. He started to get to be an old man, people, he’s getting hurt.

Kate Constable:

How old is he? 36? 37?

Alex Christenson:

Who knows? He’s been playing for like 20 plus years.

Kate Constable:

Can’t be the most athletic-

Alex Christenson:

God forbid finally age a little bit.

Kate Constable:

Right? He can’t be the most athletic forward in his upper thirties. I’m sorry.

Alex Christenson:

Yeah. The people in their upper thirties. Right.

Kate Constable:

Okay. Okay. So Alex, you must be in your upper thirties is what you’re telling me right now.

Alex Christenson:

Well, anyway.

Kate Constable:

Okay. Moving on. Josh, we talked about speed prior to the show Giannis, yeah, his stride, his steps, that probably works. But Domantas the bonus for speed, that seems a little funky to me.

Josh C:

There’s a couple things a little bit funky here, guys. I don’t know how many of you voted, but look, let me just say LeBron James is not someone whose shooting should probably be second in terms of the best NBA forward right now. I think there’s quite a few names you could probably put ahead of him. Jason Tatum should probably be on that list somewhere. Off court swag, yeah, maybe LeBron, I guess. I don’t know. PJ tuck for me has to win that category. You know, doesn’t bring a whole lot else to the NBA these days, but he does bring defense and some swag to courts. So I’d have him there for sure. Speed is a tough one though, right? Like there’s not a ton of fast forwards. I think Giannis gets it by default, which is completely fine. Giannis getting most of these categories is completely fine as well. I don’t know. I don’t think there’s too many other ones that really stand out as being completely off for me. Except the ones that have already been highlighted, I think.

Kate Constable:

Bam Adebayo, I like him for strength. Definitely one of the stronger forwards in the league, he can bully his way down low quite a bit.

Kate Constable:

Yeah. Otherwise, it kind of all looks, looks pretty good. I don’t think Anthony Davis is all that athletic. Is he really one of the most athletic players?

Alex Christenson:

When he decides to play.

Josh C:

He’s athletic for his size, I guess, but-

Kate Constable:

He just doesn’t move that quick in my mind. Maybe I’m watching the-

Josh C:

It’s cause he’s fragile, Kate.

Kate Constable:

What was that?

Josh C:

Yeah, the athleticism one. That’s not so great. I think maybe Bam actually would probably be my top choice for strength now that I’m looking at the list. You guys are right, speed’s a little bit tough. I mean, Joe Harris not being involved at all in the shooting. I don’t know what Brandon Ingram’s name’s or Gordon Hayward’s names doing there. Honestly. I don’t know what people think of shooting these days. I thought it meant something else. I don’t know.

Kate Constable:

Yeah. And Julius Randle off court swag, of all the players, I’m not sure.

Alex Christenson:

Jimmy Butler.

Kate Constable:

Oh, that’s a good one.

Kate Constable:

[crosstalk 00:25:14]

Josh C:

I think there’s a few forwards you could probably make a case for in defense that aren’t there, on top of the ones that already are there. That’s probably the hardest one to fill out for a forward perspective.

Alex Christenson:

Right? It’s a solid job, but yeah, I need to have Draymond there.

Speaker 2:

All right. Well, I mean either way, Giannis, LeBron, Kevin Durant, those are some of the top players in the league. So those are a safe number one. But let us know who you think is one of the best in those different categories. We also have built our best guard. So head over to BetUS and check that out. That is over in the Locker Room section at BetUS.com and let us know what you think of the best guard that our fans and followers have built. Send your answers in the chat feature. We’ll check those out and maybe go over the best guard next show.

Speaker 2:

That is all we have for you guys today. Thank you for joining us. And we look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.