NBA Odds, Picks, Predictions: 4 Best Playoff Bets 76ers vs. Wizards and Jazz vs. Grizzlies (Monday, May 31)

The top seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference are in action Monday night, with the Philadelphia 76ers looking to close out the Washington Wizards and the Utah Jazz seeking a commanding lead over the Memphis Grizzlies.

Our NBA analysts are looking at both of Monday night's playoff games and are betting the a first quarter, full game spread and team total.

Check out their analysis and picks for today’s action below.

Playoff Promos: $300 if Philly wins tonight, more!

Bet $30, Win $300 if PHI wins Game 4!

Bet $20, Win $200 if Embiid scores a point!

And more …

Claim Offers Now

NBA Odds & Picks

Philadelphia 76ers vs. Washington Wizards

Matt Trebby : I have yet to see any indication that the Wizards can come close to stopping the 76ers.

After looking like they might snag a game in this series during Game 1, Washington has looked overmatched at every turn in the past two games. Philly has been comfortably shooting over 50% from the field in the past two games, and a 17-of-33 performance from 3-point land gave the Wizards no chance in Game 3.

The 76ers are also going to be extremely fresh. Only two players have played more than 30 minutes once for them over the past two games — Tobias Harris 32 and Ben Simmons 30, both in Game 3.

Maybe Bradley Beal comes out, has an amazing display of shotmaking and simply wills the Wizards to a win on his own. Maybe Davis Bertans actually makes multiple 3-pointers in a game and gives Washington a chance.

I’m not buying it, though. After two extremely convincing covers, Philadelphia has an experienced coach in Doc Rivers who will emphasize the importance of a sweep.

Back the 76ers up to -11.5.

76ers Promos: $300 if they win Game 4, more!

Bet $30, Win $300 if PHI wins!

Bet $20, Win $200 Embiid scores a point!

And more …

Claim Offers Now

Philadelphia 76ers vs. Washington Wizards

Kenny Ducey: The 76ers rose to the top of the Eastern Conference this season on the back of their incredible defense, but it’s been their offense that has been most impressive thus far in the postseason.

Philly has scored 125.2 points per 100 possessions against a Wizards defense that never made it out of the bottom third of the NBA in efficiency this season, and it’s just continued to get easier and easier for this group.

Washington has looked increasingly gassed in recent games, with a rotation of bigs — Daniel Gafford, Alex Len and Robin Lopez — who are unable to stop Joel Embiid or some of the other long Sixers who love to play in the paint like Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris. The Sixers have scored at least 120 points in each game, and I think the foot will be on the gas here as they go for the sweep.

With Russell Westbrook (knee) and Ish Smith (groin) appearing on the injury report ahead of this one, this has the potential to be an ugly game for the Wizards. I like the Sixers to cover here, but with an even weaker defense against the key to this Philly offense in Simmons, I like this team total even more.

There’s also plenty of upward mobility as it pertains to the pace here, considering the Wizards are severely lacking in that department after leading the league in pace and could always come out guns blazing here.

Utah Jazz vs. Memphis Grizzlies

Malik Smith: The Utah Jazz have the second-highest first quarter offense so far in the postseason (31.3 points per game in the quarter) behind the Philadelphia 76ers and the best point differential (+9.3).

Much like they did all season, the Jazz have buried the Grizzlies under an avalanche of 3-pointers early. The Jazz average 5.3 makes per game through three games and most of their attempts (30 of the 35 they've taken in the opening frame) have been open shots per NBA Advanced Stats, which they've converted at a 43% rate.

In the one game the Jazz didn't score 30 or more in the first quarter, they still held a seven-point margin over the Grizzlies who, outside of Game 2, have gotten off to slow starts. With the Jazz listed as just -1.5 favorites in the opening quarter, I'll back this trend to continue tonight.

BetSync with BetMGM for easy bet tracking

Automatically import all your bets

Track your bet win probability

Available in NJ, PA, CO, IN, TN and WV

Get Started

Utah Jazz vs. Memphis Grizzlies

Raheem Palmer: Favorites have been downright dominant during this past weekend of the NBA playoffs. Since Friday, favorites are 9-2 both straight up and against the spread.

Although that doesn’t have much relevancy in determining who will cover the spread of tonight’s Jazz vs Grizzlies game, I think it speaks to how many mismatches we’ve had in the first round.

If there’s anything that exemplifies that, it’s the Jazz winning by 10 despite the Grizzlies having 19 more field goal attempts. The Grizzlies out-rebounded the Jazz 50-43 and had an Offensive Rebound Rate of 33.9% in their non garbage time minutes and still were down double digits for a significant part of Saturday’s game.

To put that in perspective, the Jazz had a higher Offensive Rebound Rate in each of the first two games, so the discrepancy we saw in Saturday night’s game is unlikely to continue.

Even if it did, the Grizzlies haven’t shown they can stop Utah’s offense which is scoring 123.7 points per 100 possessions throughout this series. The Jazz are making 16.7 3s per game, consistent with their season averages, while almost doubling the Grizzlies in made 3-point field goals (50-28), while outscoring the Grizzlies in by 66 points from behind the arc.

That’s not the type of discrepancy that can easily be made up, particularly when that team also has more free throw attempts (91-73). Overall, I think this is a mismatch and the Grizzlies are getting more credit than they deserve based on how hard they’ve played.

They’re a solid team but this Jazz team is in a different class. It will show here once again. I’ll lay the 5.5 points with the Jazz as they should cover this spread and go up 3-1.