NBA Multi bet of the Weekend | November 29-December 1

After a day off for Thanksgiving, the NBA’s weekend action kicks off with a massive day of games on Saturday. It start bright and early, with the first game of the day tipping off at 4am AEDT, and with 20 teams playing their last NBA Cup game before the finals there is plenty on the line. The NBA Cup can be useful for betting since points differential is relevant and so there is less chance of starters being pulled really early in a blowout, which can be beneficial to player prop overs, of which we have a couple. Check out those and the other bets that make up our weekend multi below.

Saturday 30th of November, 4am AEDT, Spectrum Center

The Hornets have been a sneaky fun team this season, courtesy primarily of Lamelo Ball. The former number three pick is averaging a whopping 31.1 points per game on a huge number of shots, taking on an enormous proportion of the Hornets offence. Sharing the bulk of the load with him is second year player Brandon Miller, who is up to 19.9 points per game this season but is putting up a lot more than that over recent games. Unfortunately, Lamelo will miss this game through injury, leaving the Hornets with a dearth of offensive options. Already Miller has been taking plenty of shots and scoring a lot of points of late, and with ‘Melo’s shots – of which he took an incredible 35 game – needing to go to somewhere else, expect the talented sophomore to take on a huge role in this game. Even with Ball playing, Miller has averaged 28 points per game over his last five, and has taken at least 16 shots in each of his last ten games. With Ball out, that number should move beyond 20 and potentially well beyond it. There will be a massive scoring load on Miller in this game, and even if it will be hard for him to be efficient with the defence clearly likely to be heavily focused on him, the sheer quantity of shots he will likely take means he should be scoring plenty of points. He’s also really good, so even with quality defence he is capable of scoring big. Obviously betting sites have factored this in, but he is nonetheless at relatively long odds to score 30 points – just slightly over what he has averaged for the last five games – and this looks like a nice value bet to start off our multi.

Saturday 30th of November, 12.05pm AEDT, Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Back to the well we go with Bennedict Mathurin. We hit on his rebounds a couple of days ago at long odds, and with NBA betting sites having hardly changed his rebounding line he once again looks like really good value. Mathurin is a talented player who has moved into a starting role for the Pacers this season, and he has reportedly been told by coach Rick Carlisle that far from just being a potentially damaging scorer at the offensive end, rebounding needs to be a big part of his job on the team. Sure enough, he has gone from 4.0 boards per game last season to 7.0 this season, and he is in particularly good form on the glass of late. Making Mathurin an even more attractive betting proposition is the fact that he can have quiet games on the glass and big games, meaning his longer odds bets to get a whole lot of them generally provide plenty of value. Last game he was at $2.80 to get 8 or more rebounds and this one it’s down to $2.30, so there certainly has been a reduction, but given how regularly he has been hitting that number it’s still relatively good value. Mathurin has had at least 8 boards in six of his last ten games, a strike rate – as you may have figured out on your own – of 60%. The odds he is at, however, suggest he is a much less than 50/50 chance to do it. Particularly given that he has surpassed that number in each of his last two games and three of his last four, we reckon that means the $2.30 odds are pretty attractive. This feels like a market that should see him odds on to hit eight, so to have it well over even money is really good value.

Saturday 30th of November, 2.05pm AEDT, Crypto.com Arena

One of the day’s final games is one of its most intriguing, with the top of the table Thunder taking on LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers. Adding even further intrigue to this game is the fact that they are both right in the mix of their NBA Cup group with a 2-1 record, with the loser set to be effectively eliminated from contention and the winner right in the mix to win Group B. Interestingly, betting agencies have this game pegged as close to an even money bet, with the Lakers actually very slight favourites. But as much as the Lakers have been solid this season, they are clearly not as good as the Thunder and favouritism against them is a bit of a stretch, even in Los Angeles. The Lakers started the season really well but lost three games in a row prior to returning to the winners’ list against the Spurs in their last game, with their defence struggling and their offensive cohesion looking a little off even despite the presence of LeBron and AD. The Thunder, meanwhile, are humming along as well as ever, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and co proving more than capable of dealing with life without Chet Holmgren for a few weeks. They have won their last three games, the first two by double figure margins (including a 21-point win over the Kings), and the latest by four points over the impressive Warriors, so it’s safe to say that their form is superior to the Lakers. With everyone aside from Holmgren set to suit up for the Thunder there is no reason to think that they won’t be able to take care of business against the Lakers; no one played yesterday so they clearly aren’t on the second leg of a back to back, and at 6-2 away from home travelling hasn’t exactly been an issue for them this season either. They should be the favourites in this game, so at virtually even money odds they look like a nice bet to round out our multi.