Top NBA Betting Picks of the Week – April 1st Edition

The Golden State Warriors and the Denver Nuggets continue to joust for the top spot in the Western Conference as the NBA’s 2018-19 regular season dwindles down. Each team has six games to play, nd the Warriors lead by one right now. Houston is in third but just a half-game ahead of Portland. Utah and the Clippers are tied for fifth, and the Spurs and Thunder are tied for seventh, so there could be lots of movement in the top eight over the last five or six games of the regular season. In the Eastern Conference, Milwaukee leads Toronto by three, while the Raptors are 4 ½ games ahead of Philadelphia — who lead Boston by the same margin, so the top three look set. Brooklyn, Miami and Orlando are a game apart at the 7-9 slots in the East, so the postseason is very much in doubt for all three of those teams right now. Looking for some NBA betting? Check out our picks of the week.

Top NBA Betting Picks of the Week – April 1st Edition

The Spurs are out and the Celtics are back in the top 10 power rankings after a crucial two-point win over the Pacers. pic.twitter.com/2KtDWiNy3z

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) 1 de abril de 2019

Monday, April 1

Miami at Boston (7:30pm ET, NBATV)

The Miami Heat have won two in a row and three of four, with victories over Dallas on Thursday and New York on Saturday as they head to Boston. Their win over the Knicks came at Madison Square Garden and pushed the Heat back into eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Dwyane Wade scored 16 points in what will be his last game at the storied arena, and Dion Waiters led the Heat with 28. Hassan Whiteside posted a double-double with 17 points and 13 boards, and Kelly Olynyk had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Goran Dragic was the third member of the Heat with a double-double with 10 points and 10 assists. Miami has won six of eight but still only lead Orlando by a half-game for the last spot in the playoffs. Can they knock off one of the East contenders on the road? Boston has split their last four games as they continue to sputter down the stretch, and they lost by 14 in Brooklyn on Saturday, 110-96. D’Angelo Russell scored 20 in the third quarter for Brooklyn as they took the game to the Celtics. Kyrie Irving and Al Horford watched the game in street clothes for Boston, resting on the back end of a back-to-back after a win over the Indiana Pacers. With Irving and Horford in the game, it is more likely that the Celtics would have prevailed, but their struggles to maintain consistency have hurt them. Can they stop a Miami team that needs every win to get into the postseason? NBA Betting Prediction: Boston 110, Miami 108

Tuesday, April 2

L.A. Lakers at Oklahoma City (8:00pm ET, TNT)

The Lakers have won four of five, including a 14-point win over Charlotte on Friday and a 28-point win in New Orleans on Sunday. Even so, they are shutting down LeBron James for the rest of the regular season, because the Lakers have been eliminated from the postseason. James didn’t play in that win over the Pelicans, but neither did the Pelicans’ top star, Anthony Davis. Alex Caruso scored 23 points, JaVale McGee had 23 points and 16 boards, and Rajon Rondo had 24 points and a dozen assists. Caruso was particularly influential in the third quarter, when he had a dozen points as the Lakers put up 44 in the period. Can Los Angeles continue their winning ways without LeBron against a Thunder team that is fighting to stop their slide to the bottom of the playoff bracket? Oklahoma City has plenty of frustration to work out as they find themselves on a two-game skid. The loss to Denver was understandable; the loss to a Dallas team that did not have Luka Doncic (thigh) in the lineup was a major disappointment. Russell Westbrook put up his 30th triple-double of the season for the Thunder, with 25 points, 11 boards and 11 assists, and Paul George had 27 points and 11 rebounds, but the Thunder have now lost 13 of 20 since the All-Star break. They shot 38.8 percent from the floor against Dallas, including 25.6 percent from behind the arc. If the Thunder can’t gain some focus, they will continue to lose winnable games. NBA Betting Prediction: Oklahoma City 116, Los Angeles 110