Tipico Tips: Betting the Thursday NBA slate

Welcome to another exciting Thursday evening of NBA action. Just like Ernie, Chuck, Kenny and Shaq, Tipico Sportsbook is here to make the NBA even more exciting for you.

We’ve got four games on tap, each carrying some real intrigue. 

The first game to tip off is a Western Conference showdown with Portland visiting the Rockets. While the Rockets are basically full strength, coach Terry Stotts will have to be very creative filling out the rotation tonight with Portland missing not just CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic, but also Robert Covington for this contest. 

Our next game features two more squads dealing with partial rosters. The Clippers will be missing Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and Patrick Beverley for the second consecutive game at the start of their current road trip. They will be visiting the Miami Heat, who will be missing several players at least, with three already ruled out and a half dozen more with some injury designation.

While the Pistons are healthy with the exception of rookie Killian Hayes, the Lakers submitted their standard injury report with both Anthony Davis and LeBron James as questionable yet again on a back-to-back set. They’ve since ruled davis out, while James remains questionable.

But it’s the nightcap we’re going to focus on here with Golden State visiting Phoenix. The Suns are favored by 2.5 with an over/under of 219.5. We’re going to recommend giving the points with the Suns and taking the under 219.5 points. It’s no secret that Stephen Curry, always a formidable offensive player, has taken over a massive amount of usage this year for Golden State. While Devin Booker’s continued absence due to injury certainly limits the upside of the Suns on offense, defensively it moves them from an above average squad to an especially terrifying one. The absence of Booker removes the issue of his spotty defense and also leads to more time for hard-nosed defenders Mikal Bridges and Jae Crowder. Throwing in the exceptional individual defensive play of Chris Paul, who has done a tremendous job of guarding Curry in the past, and we like the Suns’ chances of controlling this game. Similarly, we feel that a Warriors loss correlates highly with the game playing slower and like pairing a bet on the Suns with a bet on the under.

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