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Top 3 NBA Betting Picks for Saturday, June 12th (2021)

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Playoff basketball is always exciting to watch, and there have been a handful of memorable games to take place in this year’s NBA playoffs already. But you know what makes playoff basketball even more fun? Betting on it (responsibly, of course). On Saturday, there is only one game on the schedule with the Western Conference Semi-Finals matchup between the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers heading to the Staples Center for Game 3.

The Jazz have won the first two games in the series, in large part due to the fantastic play from Donovan Mitchell. After seeing how the first two games have gone and how Utah/Los Angeles have performed in the playoffs thus far, these are a few bets I have my sights set on for Saturday’s basically must-win game for the Clippers.

Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.

YTD: 4-6-0

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Paul George Over 7.5 Rebounds (-138)

Entering the series between the Jazz and the Clippers, it was well-known that Los Angeles was going to have a tough time keeping Rudy Gobert off the glass. The Clippers have tried deploying Ivica Zubac in the lineup more, but he’s been unable to mitigate Gobert’s ability to rebound. While Los Angeles deploys a smaller lineup, Paul George has benefitted in the rebounding department in recent games.

In the first two games of the series, George has combined for 20 rebounds, snagging 10 rebounds in each contest. Furthermore, over the past 10 games, George has corraled 9+ rebounds in seven out of his last 10 games, including five out of his last six. Also, during the regular season, the Jazz surrendered the seventh-most rebounds per game to opposing shooting guards. Unless the Clippers make a drastic change to their lineup that elects to go bigger, I expect George to continue being one of their leading rebound getters on Saturday.

Reggie Jackson Over 14.5 Points (-110)

After falling to a 2-0 deficit in their first-round series versus the Dallas Mavericks, the Clippers desperately needed someone to step up alongside Kawhi Leonard and George. While Marcus Morris, Nicolas Batum, and Serge Ibaka usually stepped up in that role in the regular season, it has been Reggie Jackson who has carried that title. Back in Game 1 against Dallas, Jackson mustered up just two points for Los Angeles.

Since then, in his last eight appearances, Jackson has scored 15+ points in seven of them. Despite losing to the Jazz in Game 2, Jackson had himself a stellar outing, notching a team-high 29 points on 11-19 shooting. With the Clippers needing to keep their hopes of advancing to the Conference Finals alive, they’ll need Jackson to continue being a consistent source of scoring on Saturday. Besides expecting bounce-back performances from Leonard and George, I anticipate another solid scoring output for Jackson.

Donovan Mitchell Over 3.5 Made Threes (-108)

Whenever the Jazz elected to sit Mitchell out of their Game 1 showdown versus the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the postseason, it seemed as if his injury could be worse than originally thought. However, since his return in Game 2, Mitchell has shown no signs of being hindered by his ankle ailment. The two-time All-Star has been remarkable in the first two games of the series against the Clippers, averaging a whopping 41 points per game amid the absence of Mike Conley.

Conley is questionable to return to Utah’s lineup on Saturday after suffering a hamstring injury in Game 5 against Memphis. Regardless of whether or not Conley plays, Mitchell has been chucking up three-point attempts in bunches this series. Altogether, in the first two games versus the Clippers, Mitchell has attempted 27 three-pointers, converting on 12 of them. If Mitchell shoots 12+ three-pointers for the third consecutive game of the series, all we need for him is to hit four of them, which he’s done six out of his last 10 outings.

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Skyler Carlin is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Skyler, check out his archive and follow him @skyler_carlin.