The Sportzshala Fantasy Basketball Betting Tips and Basketball Betting Cheat Sheet is where you can get pre-game basketball betting predictions and our best intelligence and data, including Sportzshala’s own Basketball Power Index (BPI), which will help you make smart betting and fantasy decisions. Odds for NBA games for Thursday, March 2 are provided by Caesars Sportsbook and fantasy tips are based on Sportzshala’s 10-team leagues.
What you need to know about Thursday’s games
The engagement continues. The NBA Marathon continues Thursday with four games interestingly teeming with streaming and DFS candidates. Only two stars on today’s schedule are predicted in my model for at least 50 DraftKings points, like Luka Doncic and his Dallas Mavericks owner Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Such a top-heavy DFS landscape means that getting the right mix of complementary players turns out to be even more important, as it’s somewhat unlikely to get a big score without both of these MVP contenders. This means people like Tyrese Maxey, Buddy Heald and Charles Bassey stand out as key values on the small sheet. Even though the Indiana Pacers have the potential to breakout against the San Antonio Spurs, who called most of the roster questionable tonight, Miles Turner is arguably Embiid’s best defensive player on the roster.
For those in reworked leagues, this is another good spot to broadcast Donte Di Vincenzo as he is a free agent in 83% of Sportzshala’s leagues and has scored 21 points in consecutive games. Di Vincenzo’s point defense is critical to the Warriors’ depleted backcourt, while his high interception speed can show up against ball-dominant opponents like today’s opponent Russell Westbrook.
— Jim McCormick and Kyle Soppe
game of the night
Los Angeles Clippers v Golden State Warriors
10:00 pm ET, Chase Center, San Francisco, CA
Records (against spread)
Clippers: 33-31 (31-33-0)
Warriors: 32-30 (29-32-1)
Line: Clippers (-3.5)
Performance Index Forecast: Clippers: 131.1-118
Money line: Clippers (-170), Warriors (143)
Predicted BPI Winner: Clippers (78.9%)
General: 231.5 Predicted BPI: 244.6
Best bet: Donte Di Vincenzo over 12.5 points. Di Vincenzo continues to enjoy his best three-point shooting season in his five-year career, and he’s made 14 of 25 attempts over the past three games. We can’t expect him to be that accurate in every game, but Di Vincenzo was averaging 13.3 points per game in February, and the Clippers have definitely had problems with defense lately. Get through a streak of luck with DiVincenzo before the return of Stephen Curry. — Eric Carabelle
Best bet: Russell Westbrook over 27.5 points + assists + rebounds. A motivated Westbrook, even at this stage in his career, is a great bet. He seems to have a stranglehold on his starting job with the Clippers. In his last three games, Westbrook averaged 16.0 points, 9.3 assists and 5.7 rebounds. In each of those games, he played 30.9 minutes. -Eric Moody
Trend: The Warriors are 25-7 at home this season, and yet they score points tonight when they host the Clippers… and I love the road team. Los Angeles has 9-5 ATS in their last 14 matches as away favorites, and 11 of their last 12 tickets have been cashed in at such venues. If you want to enter the world of Same Game Parlay (SGP) and embrace this trend, you have the green light. Overs are 20-10-2 when the Warriors can’t cover, so it makes sense to bet on scoring. And who will do it? Paul George has averaged 28.6 points (3.7 trebles), 6.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists over the last nine games as the road favorite (he earned 35 PRA in seven of those nine games). Use this information however you want, but there is a story to tell and a few dots you can connect! – Kyle Soppe
Destruction of the rest of the shale
Toronto Raptors – Washington Wizards.
7:00 pm ET, Capital One Arena, Washington DC
Records (against spread)
Raptors: 31-32 (31-32-0)
Wizards: 29-32 (29-31-1)
Line: Predators (-2)
Performance Index Forecast: Predators: 122.5-120.2
Money line: Raptors (-130), Wizards (110)
Predicted BPI Winner: Predators (58.5%)
General: 223 Predicted BPI: 242.7
Fantasy streamer: Daniel Gafford (played in 10.6% of Sportzshala leagues) has been losing consecutive 40-point fantasy games against the Hawks and Bulls and has been averaging 11 points per game, 7 rebounds and 75% shooting from the field since early January. In other words, he’s been playing well for a long time and that should continue against the Raptors. – Karabel
Best bet: Bradley Beal over 22.5 points. Beal should see significant use with the departure of Monte Morris, which is great for a Wizards team trying to make the playoffs. In his last eight games, Beal averaged 20.0 field goals and 25.9 points. Against the Raptors, he should be able to match or exceed per-game averages. -Capricious
Best bet: Fred VanVleet over 29.5 points + assists + rebounds. On Tuesday, Van Vliet struggled hard in his first game after missing time for personal reasons. He should have a much better run against the Wizards on Thursday night. VanVleet averaged 20.2 points, 7.8 assists and 4.6 rebounds in his last 12 games. I expect VanVleet to play the same against Washington. -Capricious
Trend: The Raptors are a unique team because they don’t rely on the three-point shot as much as the others. With a record below .500, you can argue the merits of this, but they’ve proven effective when faced with other similarly limited (imperfect?) teams. This season, Toronto is 11-4 ATS in its 15 games against teams that, like them, are in the top 10 in 2-point basket percentage. Wizard games have been hard to score lately (underscoring nine of 14), and that’s okay for the Raptors as they’ve covered seven of their last nine games that ended under the total. – Soups
Philadelphia 76ers vs. Dallas Mavericks
7:30 pm ET, American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
Records (against spread)
76ers: 40-21 (34-26-1)
Mavericks: 32–31 (22–38–3)
Line: Mavericks (-4)
Performance Index Forecast: Mavericks: 130.4–126.8
Money line: 76ers (162), Mavericks (-195)
Predicted BPI Winner: Mavericks (63%)
General: 228.5 Predicted BPI: 257.2
Best bet: Kyrie Irving over 23.3 points. Philadelphia played and won in Miami, and this game in Dallas is on a short hiatus, but the 6ers could have had a week off and it might not have mattered. James Harden doesn’t care much about defense, and Tyrese Maxey just isn’t good at it. The Sixers may or may not have Joel Embiid, but opposing defensemen are enjoying the Sixers game anyway, and Irving, who struggled with his shot last week, is looking to get back on track with a 30-point shot. a game. He’s too good to shoot so badly (23 out of 53 in the last three games) for a long time. – Karabel
Trend: Overs betting when one team plays back-to-back is easy to sell: fatigue sets in, and in this era of basketball, players are more likely to “rest” defensively. Believe it if you will, it didn’t pay off for the 76ers, as each of their last five zero-rest games was more than seven points behind the total. The Mavericks are 4-9-1 ATS in both their last 14 home games (1-3 with Kyrie Irving) and their last 14 games that fell short of their projected total. -Soups
Indiana Pacers at San Antonio Spurs
8:30 pm ET, AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
Records (against spread)
Pacers: 28-35 (34-29-0)
Spurs: 15–47 (25–37–0)
Line: Pacers (-5)
Performance Index Forecast: Pacers: 131.1–125.8
Money line: Pacers (-225), Spurs (185)
Predicted BPI Winner: Pacers (68.1%)
General: 238 Predicted BPI: 256.9
Best bet: Miles Turner over 29.5 points + rebounds. Turner’s matchup with the Spurs is too spicy to miss. San Antonio ranks 30th in points scored per 100 possessions. The Spurs also allow opposition to hit 57.8% of effective field goals, the highest in the league. Turner averaged 29.3 points and 8.3 rebounds over his last three games. -Capricious
Source: www.espn.com
