NBA Picks for Saturday, April 8, 2023

After failing to hit either leg of my NBA Parlay Pick on Wednesday, I rallied to go 2-0 on my NBA betting picks on Thursday night. The Oklahoma City Thunder went on the road and took care of the Utah Jazz even though Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggled from the field. Utah sat its three leading scorers including All-NBA forward Lauri Markkanen, making the task at hand much easier for the Thunder.

We didn’t see the Denver Nuggets play their top four scorers on the road against the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night, but they still answered Michael Malone’s call. Malone questioned the team’s toughness publicly after the Nuggets fell to Houston on Tuesday night, and the reserves responded by nearly knocking off a Phoenix team that gave big minutes to Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, and Devin Booker. That resulted in the Nuggets easily covering the NBA betting odds as a 13.5-point underdog.

There are only three NBA games on Saturday, and it could be a little difficult to find value as the only teams with anything to play for are the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers. The game between Denver and Utah is effectively meaningless, so let’s focus our attention on the other two tilts.

NBA Betting Odds at BetRivers Sportsbook

Minnesota Timberwolves at San Antonio Spurs

At this point, the Minnesota Timberwolves will probably have to settle for a place in the play-in tournament. Minnesota is 40-40 as the T-Wolves struggled for too long without Karl-Anthony Towns in the lineup. The Timberwolves will at least be the No. 9 seed as they have the tiebreaker with both Oklahoma City and Dallas, but they are still holding out hope they can move into the No. 7-No. 8 game in order to have two chances to qualify for the playoffs.

Accordingly, the oddsmakers are going to make the Timberwolves a humongous favorite per the basketball betting odds against the 21-59 San Antonio Spurs in the penultimate day of the NBA regular season. San Antonio has been able to rise up and knock off some playoff contenders at times this season, but the Spurs just don’t have a lot of talent. Keldon Johnson is the leading scorer, and he has only taken the court four times since St. Patrick’s Day. Devin Vassell won’t be available with a knee injury, while Devonte Graham didn’t play on Thursday night.

This is a massively important game for Minnesota. However, the Timberwolves fell to the Spurs in their last game on October 30, and they lost two of three games to San Antonio this season. Given what’s at stake, the Timberwolves will be favored by too much, and the Spurs should be able to cover the NBA betting odds here. Minnesota hasn’t won a game by more than six points since March 13, as the Timberwolves don’t blow out opponents.

Portland Trail Blazers at Los Angeles Clippers

The Los Angeles Clippers are just 5-5 over their last 10 games, but they did beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night in order to stay one game ahead of their city rival in the playoff race. Currently, the Clippers would not have to take part in the play-in tournament, and they are trying to keep it that way. They close their season off with back-to-back games against the Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns.

We don’t know what to expect from Phoenix, but Portland has mailed it in since the All-Star Break. The Trail Blazers shut down Damian Lillard almost two weeks ago, and they are just 5-17 over their last 22 games. Shaedon Sharpe injured his knee and missed Thursday’s game, putting his status in question for the weekend, and the Trail Blazers will likely sit Anfernee Simons, Jerami Grant, and Jusuf Nurkic too.

The Clips still don’t have Paul George as he is dealing with an injury, but Kawhi Leonard is playing big minutes now that it’s the end of the regular season. We’ve seen Norman Powell step up too, and he wants to put it on his former team. Powell has made at least 40% of his threes for five straight seasons,

so don’t be surprised if he makes it rain in a big LAC win.