NBA Best Odds This Week: April 14-20

The NBA Playoffs are finally upon us! 

We kick things off with the NBA Play-In Round to determine who the 7th and 8th seeds from each conference will be and then we kick off the actual show on Saturday with a quadruple-header of games. 

Needless to say, it’s an exciting time to be an NBA fan. 

Here, we’ll get into all the playoff game odds and see if we can unearth some betting gems for the first week of NBA playoffs action.

Note: Odds were correct at the time of writing.

NBA Odds This Week

The 7 vs. 8 games in each conference tip off on Tuesday, with the winners of tonight’s games locking down the 7 seed and a date with the 2 seed (Houston and Boston) in their conference, while the losers of each of those games get a date with the winner of the respective 9 vs. 10 games on Wednesday for the final 8 seed in each conference. 

Matchup	Betting Line	Moneyline	Total
Hawks at Magic	Magic (-5)	Hawks (+172) Magic (-205)	219
Grizzlies at Warriors	Warriors (-7)	Grizzlies (+245) Warriors (-300)	228.5
Heat at Bulls (Wed.)	Bulls (-1)	Heat (+102) Bulls (-120)	219
Mavs at Kings (Wed.)	Kings (-4.5)	Mavs (+160)Kings (-190)	216
Bucks at Pacers (Sat.)	Pacers (-5)	Bucks (+168) Pacers (-200)	225.5
Clippers at Nuggets (Sat.)	Nuggets (-3)	Clippers (+130) Nuggets (-154)	225
Pistons at Knicks (Sat.)	Knicks (-7)	Pistons (+245) Knicks (-300)	220.5
T’Wolves at Lakers (Sat.)	Lakers (-4.5)	T’Wolves (+168) Lakers (-200)	216.5

NBA Matchups to Watch

Realistically speaking, every postseason game merits watching. But here are the playoff matchups we are most excited to see this week. 

Grizzlies at Warriors (-7) at FanDuel – April 15

To display the disparity this season between the East and the West, considering that both of these teams would be firmly entrenched in the playoff field as the 5 seed in the East, but in the West they need to win one of their final two games just to get into the playoffs. 

Quite frankly, play-in matchups typically aren’t going to have a pair of 48-34 teams with the star power present on both rosters that Tuesday’s Grizzlies-Warriors game will have. This one should be good. 

Clippers at Nuggets (-3) at FanDuel – April 19

With the Clippers OT win over the Warriors in the final game of the season, the hottest team in the Western Conference coming into the playoffs locked up a first-round date with a Nuggets team that’s suddenly hitting quite a bit of turbulence at the worst conceivable time. 

As long as Nikola Jokic is upright and breathing, you can never count out the Nuggets in any circumstance, however, it just feels like the Clippers are beginning to come together and finally show the potential we’ve been waiting to see from them since they signed Kawhi Leonard in 2019. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Clippers postseason without them face planting in an early exit either, which is what makes this playoff series so captivating. 

T’Wolves at Lakers (-4.5) at FanDuel – April 19

The last game on the Saturday slate brings us the first Lakers playoff game with Luka Doncic in the fold as the Lake Show play host to a Timberwolves team that has been playing its best basketball of the season coming into this series.

The Wolves, of course, were a whisker away from their first ever NBA Finals berth before that Luka guy had other things on his mind. Revenge in a roundabout way will surely be on the minds of Anthony Edwards and company. 

And as far as the Lakers go, outside of bets on the Thunder and Celtics, the Lakers will surely be the most popular futures bet to win the title. You clearly can’t foreshadow an entire playoff run based off Game 1 of the Western Quarterfinals, but a lot of eyeballs will be watching this one. 

NBA Best Bets This Week – April 14-20

As we mentioned at the top, the NBA Play-In round begins tonight with a pair of 7 vs. 8 games. Here are our best bets for each game as we look to stack a little bit of bankroll before the ‘real deal Holyfield’ playoff games begin on Saturday. 

Grizzlies (+7) at Warriors at FanDuel – April 14

While I do believe the Warriors ultimately will win this game to set up a first-round date with the Rockets (a series I believe the Warriors should be favored in), I think the Grizzlies have the talent on the roster and the experience in this exact situations to keep pace with a Warriors team that can explode on any given night. 

Memphis enters this play-in round game with a paltry 14-25 record against teams with a winning record and while I do like them to still cover even despite that alarming statistic, I would suggest treading lightly on this game as there are going to be much better betting opportunities this weekend.

Nonetheless, give me the Grizz to cover the 7 and for this one to come down to the last 5 minutes of the game.

Betting Trend of Note: Memphis is 5-14 ATS over their last 19 games and just 2-11 ATS against the Western Conference over their last 13 games. 

Hawks at Magic (-5) at FanDuel – April 14

Like the Grizzlies before them, Trae Young and the Hawks have pulled out some play-in round magic in recent seasons, however, they run into a pretty difficult draw tonight when they visit one of the best defensive teams in the NBA in the Magic. 

In the postseason, the intensity of the games cranks up to an entirely different level, and such intensity generally favors a defensive minded team.  

I think the Magic dictate the pace of this game and prevent the Hawks from playing their preferred open and free style of play and grab the win and cover tonight. 

Betting Trend of Note: The Magic are 20-8 SU and 17-11 ATS as a home favorite this season.