NBA Betting Picks for Today: Boston Celtics at Minnesota Timberwolves
The Boston Celtics are 7-point favorites and the point total is 226 at online sports betting sites. Here’s a look at NBA odds and“NBA betting pick for today, Friday, February 21, 2020.
NBA Betting Picks for Today: Celtics at Timberwolves
Before I get to the analysis, I’m going to vent a little. If you read the article yesterday, then you probably won money. Yesterday morning, Simmons got downgraded as Questionable 5 minutes after the article came out. As it goes, the spread dropped to -7.5 (as low as -6.5 later in the day) and the total jumped to 216.5 in some spots. Of course, both of those hit by the narrowest of margins. Yes, I’m venting because I lost money, but I’m also venting to let you know that one of the biggest advantages in sports betting is to jump on bad lines as soon as news comes out. If you had waited a small amount of time for the injury reports to come out, you would have been able to wait until Simmons was officially ruled out and get the line at 6.5. I digress…Now that that’s done, let’s get to the NBA betting breakdown for the Boston Celtics at Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Celtics come into this game on a bit of a heater. Even without Kemba Walker in the offense, the Celtics have been on a hot streak winning 7 of their last 8 and are in third place the Eastern Conference with a record of 38-16. While the Celtics have been a worse team on the road this season, they have actually covered at one of the highest rates in the league going 15-10-1, which ranks fouth in the NBA. They are the far superior team in this matchup and are coming into this game fully rested. While Walker’s absence in this game is a bit of a hit, it isn’t nearly the hit that the Timberwolves have without Karl-Anthony Towns available. Plus, without Walker, the Celtics still have Marcus Smart to fill in. Smart is no Walker, but he’s also no stranger playing a big role for the Celtics.
For DFS purposes, Walker out has been a massive upgrade for all other players in the offense. With extra usage to go around, guys like Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are fantastic plays tonight on the NBA DFS slate.
As for Minnesota, the Timberwolves have been horrible this season. Their troubles are partially explained by injuries aside from the Timberwolves just being an inferior team relative to the rest of the NBA.
The Timberwolves desperately needed the All-Star break after losing
9 of their last 10 games. Their struggles have led them to 14th in the Western Conference with a record of 16-37. For NBA betting purposes, no team in the league has been a better team to bet against this season than Timberwolves, who are only covering at a dismal 35.3% clip going 18-33-2 ATS including a horrible 6-20-1 ATS record at home.
Everything in this game sets up terribly for the Timberwolves. They have minimal size in this game without Towns in the offense and will likely struggle to not only defend these Celtics wings but also to score against this Celtics defense. While the absence of KAT will open up a lot of usage for guys like Deangelo Russell and Malik Beasley in DFS, this is a massive downgrade for the Timberwolves as a team.
NBA Betting Picks: Boston Celtics -6.5
As stated earlier, this sets up as an absolute smash spot for the Celtics going up against a terrible Timberwolves team who have covered at the lowest rate in the league on their home court. The Celtics have been playing some fantastic basketball recently and the Timberwolves have been downright horrible. It certainly doesn’t help that they’re missing their best player Friday night. I think that this game turns into a complete blowout and is over by the end of the 3rd quarter. Don’t overthink this one. Take the Celtics and move on.
- Risking 1.05 unit to win 1 unit on Celtics -7 (-105)
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NBA 2019-2020 Betting Record: 10-9-2 (-.5 units)
Celtics at Timberwolves NBA Player Props
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