Handicapping the NBA: Thursday Picks

Handicapping the NBA: Thursday Picks

This article is part of our NBA Picks series.

Alex Barutha

Davis Bertans UNDER 2.5 threes (-103) vs. IND -- DraftKings (1:26 PM CT)

The Pacers allow the fourth-fewest made threes per game to opponents. Bertans is averaging 2.7 made threes per game this month, and I think Indiana will play good enough defense on the perimeter to keep him under three triples. Also, despite being a great career three-point shooter (40.7 percent), Bertans has been awful in meaningful games. In his 273 playoff minutes, Bertans is a woeful 14-for-47 (29.8 percent) from deep.

Jacob Lebowitz

Russell Westbrook OVER 28.5 Assists + Rebounds (-105) vs. IND -- BetMGM (11:39 AM CT)

Westbrook has been dominant all season against the Pacers, especially with grabbing rebounds and dishing out assists. In each game of his three games versus the Pacers, Westbrook managed to get over the assists and rebounds line of 28.5 while averaging 20.0 assists and 18.0 rebounds in each game. Although the 32-year-old had a rough night against the Celtics on Tuesday, the point guard will come into Thursday's game with something to prove after taking a lot of the blame for the Wizards' poor performance Tuesday.

Joe Bartel

Bradley Beal OVER 1.5 made threes vs IND + Nets to win (vs. BOS) (+115) -- DraftKings (12:45 PM CT)

It's wild to me how expansive DraftKings has gotten with their prop bets now that we've moved to the playoffs. I wish they could have tried to be this aggressive during the final days of the NBA regular season. In any case, I think Beal over 1.5 made threes is an absolute lock, especially in this type of game. He actually went under this figure in five of his past games, so it's not as guaranteed of a lock as Vegas seems to indicate (over -159). That said, even with a debilitating hamstring, I can't imagine Beal continues to shoot under 30 percent from deep, particularly in this do-or-die setting. After that, I just wanted to tack on something to give us better odds, so who better than the Nets, who have the highest odds of victory among playoff teams competing Saturday.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Joe Bartel
Joe Bartel is RotoWire's Operations Specialist and football contributor among many other things. When not at the office, he's probably playing a variety of Gen 4 console games or rooting on his beloved Green Bay Packers.
Alex Barutha
Alex is RotoWire's Chief NBA Editor. He writes articles about daily fantasy, year-long fantasy and sports betting. You can hear him on the RotoWire NBA Podcast, Sirius XM, VSiN and other platforms. He firmly believes Robert Covington is the most underrated fantasy player of the past decade.
Jacob Lebowitz
Jacob is a former RotoWire contributor. He's always doing something sports-related whether that's playing NBA 2K, watching a football game or playing a game of pickup basketball.
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