NBA In-Season Tournament Best Bets Tonight | Expert Picks for Friday

NBA In-Season Tournament Best Bets Tonight

The NBA In-Season Tournament is officially underway — but there's still plenty of time to get in on our expert NBA In-Season Tournament best bets tonight for Friday!

Best NBA Bets Tonight for the In-Season Tournament

By Matt Moore

This line opened at 226.5 and is down to 224.5 at some places in the market. That's a good sign to start. I have this projected at 219.5, so I'm good with anything down to 221.

Miami has scored under their projected team total in three of five games, with the two exceptions vs. Milwaukee and Boston, two teams they get up for given their playoff history with both. The Wizards' defense is bad, to be sure, and the over is 3-1 in Wizards games.

But given Miami's offensive struggles, I like the under in this spot.

Pick: Under 225 | Play to 221

By Matt Moore

No Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in this one, and the offense has been better when he hasn't been on the court. But Golden State is No. 1 in schedule-adjusted defense, and in every game, the Warriors' opponent team total has gone under. OKC has gone under in their team total in three of their five games.

Without Shai, the offense should suffer (despite the on-off numbers), and while that means more transition opportunities for the Warriors, Golden State is 26th in offensive pace this season via DunksAndThrees.com.

This opened 228.5 and is down to 224.5. I have it projected at 215, so I'm good with this down to 220.

Pick: Under 224.5 | Play to 220

By Bryan Fonseca

As someone who knows the Heat pretty well, I know this game is about to be some bullsh*t, I'm just not sure which kind.

Will the Heat respond with a blowout win after an embarrassingly bad start? Will the Wizards humor us and further dent what remains of this current Heat core? Who knows, but I know this is about to be some bullsh*t.

And part of that is, a team starting Kyle Lowry and Tyler Herro is liable to get cooked by other guards, which has happened already on multiple occasions.

Jones has gone over 19.5 points, rebounds and assists in 3-of-4, and has a favorable match-up to make it 4-in-5 so long as his boy Jimmy Butler stays away.

Then again, it's November, so I'm not sure how much Butler even cares yet.

Pick: Tyus Jones over 19.5 PRA (-105)

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By Joe Dellera

Jalen Brunson has thrived in big games, and the Knicks tip off the In-Season Tournament against the Milwaukee Bucks who have struggled defensively against elite guard play after the trade that sent Jrue Holiday out for Damian Lillard.

This season, Brunson has averaged 4.4 assists and is coming off of two down games against Cleveland. Looking back over the last two seasons, Brunson has averaged 6 assists per game with 5+ in 70% of those games. This season, he is averaging 10 Potential Assists per game but the two games against the Cavaliers, a team that plays at one of the slowest Paces in the league has brought that number down.

The Bucks have allowed Schroder (11), Trae (11), Maxey (8), Bogdanovic (6), and Dejounte Murray (5) to all freely dish the basketball, and Brunson of that ilk. I'll take Brunson to exceed his 4.5 assists line in what should be a pace up spot for New York.

Pick: Jalen Brunson over 4.5 Assists

By Chris Baker

I’m jumping on the Cavs here after hearing that Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen both went through shootaround today. The Cavs have been playing short-handed for most of the season, and I think they are being undervalued now.

This Pacers team is exciting, but they might be a historically bad defense this season. They allowed the Cavs to shoot 51% of their attempts at the rim despite the Cavs missing Donovan Mitchell, Garland, and Allen in that game. Now all three have an opportunity to be back here, and at the very least, we will be getting Mitchell back in the lineup. There is not a single Pacer I trust to keep Mitchell from going wherever he wants, and as a result, I expect this Pacers defense to be in constant rotation all game.

The Pacers are 2-2 yet rank 24th in adjusted net-rating (-3.3) vs the Cavs' 11th ranked net-rating (+1.5), and that doesn’t even account for the fact that the Cavs have been extremely banged up through their first 5 games. In my mind, the Pacers have one legitimate win over the Wizards in the opener as the Cavs team they beat was without three starters. We saw how badly this team got smoked against the Celtics and even if Haliburton comes back I think -2.5 is good value if we are getting both Garland and Allen back as well.

If we get negative injury news and Haliburton is in while Allen and Garland are out I will likely pivot to the over and get off this -2.5.

Pick: Cavs -2.5