NBA Bet Tips 1/7/21: Blazers, Lillard will bounce back

1/7/21 NBA Bet Tips: NBA Thursday is always fun to bet given the short slates, and January 7 NBA picks look like they’ll be wild with the small sample. With these tiny groups of games, your attention span can hyper-focus on the nationally televised games to make the sweat as intense as possible. Today’s games were easy picks given that early-season odds are oftentimes wonky, with expectations sky-high in some places and slow to adjust elsewhere. All odds were obtained from PointsBet and are current as of Thursday at midnight ET.

NBA Bet Tips 1/7/21

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Philadelphia 76ers -1 (-105) vs. Brooklyn Nets

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Wager: 1 units (win would pay 1.95) This game is very, very odd given the uncertain status of Joel Embiid. All we know right now Seth Curry is questionable and Mike Scott is out. Embiid sat out the last back-to-back Philadelphia played on December 27th but if I recall correctly, there was optimism for his status in future double-features. Nevertheless, the 76ers are a tough matchup for the Nets even without Embiid. They have insane size across the floor and can attack Brooklyn’s biggest weakness on the wing with Simmons and Harris. Coming off of an exhausting game last night where they were forced to score 141 could be seen as a negative but they have a TON of depth to compensate. Whether that be Dwight Howard in for Embiid or Tyrese Maxey/Shake Milton in for Curry, they can work around the loss and out-size Brooklyn and cause problems for Kyrie Irving. The Nets are just off of their blow-out win without Kevin Durant versus a good Jazz team and the perception may be skewed on how good they are without him. If Joel Embiid were to be ruled out, smash the money-line if Brooklyn ends up favored.

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Portland Trail Blazers -10 (-110) vs Minnesota Timberwolves

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Wager: 2 units (win would pay 3.82)

The Timberwolves are so, so bad and they are mixing up their lineup for any semblance of hope. They recently moved away from Naz Reid as a staple to incorporate more Juancho Hernangomez and Jarred Vanderbilt, but really this front-court will be no match for even a cold Robert Covington and Jusuf Nurkic. The margin is fairly large at -10 for a sub-.500 team like the Blazers, but they are not this bad. Lillard is coming off of a rough game but should bounce back against the Wolves’ mediocre perimeter defense. Minnesota needs Karl-Anthony Towns back BADLY and will continue struggling until then.

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Dallas Mavericks +3 (-110) @ Denver Nuggets

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Wager: 1 unit (win would pay 1.91)

The Dallas Mavericks recently made a lineup change in moving Tim Hardaway Jr. to the bench and utilizing him as a sixth-man which could bode well for this team that is learning how to work with Josh Richardson and without Kristaps Porzingis.

https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon/status/1346897896772423683?s=20

While the Nuggets are healthier and better on paper the Mavs massive backcourt matches up very well and should cause trouble for their guards. Nikola Jokic is obviously the game-breaker for Denver but even with Dallas’s weak front-court, Jokic isn’t the type of banger inside that would cause trouble. Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber work well around the perimeter and can follow him around. Three points isn’t much but even so I’m more comfortable having that margin of error in case the Nuggets win. Kev Mahserejian is 5-3 (+5 units) on his 2020 NBA bets.

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