And then there were four. The Conference Finals kicked off on Tuesday with the Nuggets demolishing the Lakers at home in Denver for a comfortable 130-100 win. Today, the Miami Heat matchup with Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals for the third time in four years. Miami took it in 2020, while the Celtics went to the Finals last year. Boston is the worthy favorite, but -500 seems far too long of odds for the Celtics to advance. The Heat should be able to make things interesting, and over 5.5 total games (-125) in the series seems worthy of a wager.
Wednesday’s Best NBA PrizePicks Player Predictions
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for NBA action on Wednesday, May 17.
Following his record-setting game-seven performance of 51 points against the 76ers, this is as spicy of an under out there. Here’s the thing, though: Erik Spoelstra is the best coach in the NBA, and he’ll be sure not to let that happen again. The Heat have elite defenders like Jimmy and Bam to contain him, and when they aren’t on him, Tatum will likely be doubled.
And then there were four. The Conference Finals kicked off on Tuesday with the Nuggets demolishing the Lakers at home in Denver for a comfortable 130-100 win. Today, the Miami Heat matchup with Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals for the third time in four years. Miami took it in 2020, while the Celtics went to the Finals last year. Boston is the worthy favorite, but -500 seems far too long of odds for the Celtics to advance. The Heat should be able to make things interesting, and over 5.5 total games (-125) in the series seems worthy of a wager.
Wednesday’s Best NBA PrizePicks Player Predictions
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for NBA action on Wednesday, May 17.
Following his record-setting game-seven performance of 51 points against the 76ers, this is as spicy of an under out there. Here’s the thing, though: Erik Spoelstra is the best coach in the NBA, and he’ll be sure not to let that happen again. The Heat have elite defenders like Jimmy and Bam to contain him, and when they aren’t on him, Tatum will likely be doubled.
Miami should also be familiar with Tatum’s style of play at this point. Dating back to the 2020 bubble playoffs, these teams have matched up on 24 different occasions. Tatum has stayed under this mark in 17 of those 24 contests. In the ECF last year, he was held under 30 points in five of the seven games. In this year’s playoffs, Tatum has stayed under in eight of 13 games. It won’t be fun to watch, but Tatum should stay under this total once again.
It feels slightly counterintuitive to fade one star and ride with the other, but Jimmy Butler just got that dawg in him, as the kids would say. After dominating the Bucks in round one and averaging 37 points per game, he took more of a facilitating role against the Knicks as they blitzed him with constant doubles. He may have taken his foot off the gas against New York, too, knowing that his teammates could do a lot of the heavy lifting en route to a series win.
The Celtics are on the same level as the Bucks, though. Jimmy knows it’s his time to shine, and they’ll need him to shoulder most of the scoring if they’re going to advance to the finals. Having not played since last Friday, he is rested and ready to go in Boston tonight.
Well, if we think Jimmy is going to be scoring, then who will be dishing it out? Look no further than their starting point guard, Gabe Vincent. He has cleared this in nine of 11 playoff games averaging 4.8 APG per game. Both of the misses came in blowouts where he played just 17 and 21 minutes. I’m of the belief the Heat will make this competitive tonight, and if that’s the case, Vincent should see closer to 30 minutes. This is juiced up to -135 at DraftKings so take the value over at PrizePicks.
Also, take a look at our other best bets for Wednesday:
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Tyler Gentile is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Tyler, follow him @808Paperboi.
