Our staff’s best bets for Hawks vs. Cavaliers, Pelicans vs. Clippers (April 15)

Four teams, two spots, one great basketball night.

The Atlanta Hawks meet the Cavaliers for the No. 8 East in Cleveland and the Los Angeles Clippers meet the New Orleans Pelicans at the Cryto.com Arena without the services of star Paul George.

Our NBA experts look at a spread bet and a player prop in today’s matchup. Check out their best bets for Friday’s playoffs.

NBA Odds & Tips

Atlanta Hawks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

Austin Wang: Money and action all seem to favor the Hawks in this duel, but I will support the Cavaliers here. The home-away splits greatly favor the Cavaliers and they have a chance to put Allen back in the lineup. The Hawks are struggling alone with a variety of injuries.

Without Collins, expect Mobley (and possibly Allen) to be able to help Young and their other scorers.

I think that narrative is consistent with the theme throughout the season. The Cleveland Cavaliers have been criminally underrated and the Hawks are constantly being put on a pedestal. It’s no different here.

The Cavaliers have home, injury and rest advantage. The value here is on the cavs – bet them to the spread and don’t be afraid to add to the moneyline.

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New Orleans Pelicans vs. Los Angeles Clippers

Brandon Anderson: The Pelicans have some intriguing advantages in this matchup, and the biggest one is almost certainly on the glass. New Orleans smashes the offensive glass. The Pels are one of the best offensive-rebound teams in the league, while the Clippers rank last on defensive glass.

New Orleans had 58 offensive rebounds in four games against the Clips for an average rebound advantage of +12. That puts LA in a real catch-22. The Clippers love to go small and that could see miner Jonas Valanciunas sent off defensively.

But playing small only gives New Orleans an even bigger rebound advantage, so it could backfire. But if the Clippers stay big, that means more Ivica Zubac, and he’s struggling defensively with the Pelicans deliberately spaced Valanciunas to the 3-point line to get Zubac off the edge.

And holy cow, it works. Valanciunas made 57 3s this year — and 12 of those came in two games against the Clippers. He made five in one and three in another and attempted eight and nine 3s, his two highest-volume games of the season.

JV has hit a 3-pointer in exactly half of his games, which is already in our favor as we get Plus Juice, but this matchup expects more. Aside from a recent blowout loss with limited Valanciunas minutes, he hit 14 of 20 3s with multiple 3s each in the other three Clippers games.

I initially researched Valanciunas to play his rebound. He had 13, 15 and 16 in those three games, and I like his rebounding over and alternate overs – but I’d rather play the 3-pointer than play both in case his minutes get messed up.

wanna go wild Look for alternate 3-point overs. Remember Valanciunas has multiple 3s in three out of four Clippers games and the volume was there. This is a clear, intended strategy.

You can play two 3’s at +600 at Bet365, three plus at +1700 and four plus at +4000. That might seem crazy, but he’s done that twice this season against the Clips. come on big guy Let’s look at this stroke.

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