He’s ba-ack! Kyrie Irving will make his first start in Brooklyn this season after Mayor Eric Adams ended New York City’s vaccine mandate for professional athletes. NBATV will broadcast the evening’s action, and I’m expecting a big game from the veteran.
Here are my top NBA betting picks for Tuesday’s action.
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1. Knicks and Pistons Under 219.5 | -112 at FD Sportsbook
The New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons aren’t having the seasons they would’ve liked to have. The Pistons dealt with a slew of injuries and look set to finish 14th or 15th in the Eastern Conference. The Knicks failed to build on their strong showing last season and look set to miss the play-in tournament. However, we’ve seen some surprisingly solid defensive play out of these squads.
The Pistons rank 23rd in defensive efficiency on the year, but no team has played better defense than Detroit through the last three games. They permitted only 100.3 points per 100 possessions through their last three contests. The Knicks can’t say the same, as they allowed an uninspiring 116.1 points per 100 possessions through that span, but they rank 13th overall on the season and have allowed only 107.2 points per 100 possessions this year.
These teams have met twice already, and they stayed under this number both times. In fact, they combined for 196 points in the first game and 179 in the second, which gives us a ton of breathing room relative to where this number currently sits. The Under is 8-5 in Detroit’s games this month, and I’m looking for hit number nine tonight in their home stand against New York.
2. PPD: Spencer Dinwiddie 15+ + DAL ML | +285 (.5u) at FD Sportsbook
The Utah Jazz are fading down the stretch. They find themselves on a three-game slump, and they just lost to the Charlotte Hornets after allowing 16 offensive rebounds. Charlotte is a league-average rebounding team, too. In contrast, the Mavericks have looked better since the trade deadline, and they will have their entire backcourt trio of Luka Doncic, Jalen Brunson, and Spencer Dinwiddie available tonight.
While it’s true that Rudy Gobert and the Jazz can lock down the paint, they haven’t been great against opposing guards and wings. Through the last seven games, opposing small forwards have scored 25.8 points per game against Utah, which ranks fifth highest. The Jazz give up roughly a league-average number to point guards and shooting guards, too.
As a result of Utah’s specific defensive vulnerabilities, we’ll target Dinwiddie. We’re getting him at a pretty big discount because he’ll slide back into the second unit tonight. I think that will actually help him, however. It means he’ll probably line up against Jordan Clarkson, a negative defender, and avoid Mike Conley, a positive one. Since joining the Mavericks, Dinwiddie has averaged 17.8 points per game. He gets 14.5 points per game when he plays off the bench, too.
The Mavericks have a much better chance of winning with Dinwiddie getting 15+ points than the 25.9% implied odds at FanDuel. Let’s wager a half-unit to secure roughly a 1.5-unit profit.
3. Kyrie Irving Over 33.5 P+A | -113 at FD Sportsbook
Kyrie Irving racked up 56 points and assists the last time he faced the Charlotte Hornets. He obviously had to do so in a road trip, but he’ll get the benefit of home-court advantage tonight. This marks Irving’s first start in Brooklyn since June 7th of last year, back when the Nets were still battling the Milwaukee Bucks for a bid to the Eastern Conference Finals.
The narrative is behind Irving tonight, but so are the numbers. Aside from his fantastic performance against the Hornets a few weeks ago, Irving averages 27.7 points and 5.5 assists per game, which puts us 0.3 shy of this total. However, Irving will probably see a few extra possessions because Charlotte plays at the association’s fifth-fastest pace.
Of course, Irving has been extremely boom or bust lately. We’ve seen him go for 35+ points four times since the All-Star Break; we’ve also seen him go for fewer than 25 three times. He scored only 11 points and dished out six assists in yesterday’s game against the Heat. However, I’m betting on a rebound performance tonight because Steve Nash limited Irving to only 30 minutes, so he’ll be relatively fresh for his home debut.
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Isaiah Sirois is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Isaiah, check out his archive and follow him @is_sirois.