NBA Expert Picks and Best Bets | February 7

It’s another wild Wednesday night in the NBA. The League’s hottest team, the Cleveland Cavaliers are big favorites over the woeful Wizards, looking for Win No. 7 in a row. Speaking of woeful, the Pistons are out in Sacramento to face the Kings. The last time those two played it was a crazy game. Plus the Sixers move on without Joel Embiid.

Cavaliers -11 (-112) at FanDuel

This is the NBA Version of Hot Or Not.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have risen to the second spot in the Eastern Conference, winners of six in a row and 14 of their last 16 games. They have a defense that allows just 109 a night and a big-time scoring tandem in Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. People still don’t give Mitchell enough credit. He’s a real star.

If not for the woeful Pistons, people would be all over the Wizards. They’re 9-40 and have the worst home record in the NBA at 3-21 (yes, worse than the Pistons). They reassigned coach Wes Unseld Jr. to a different role in the front office, because, yeah, that will make everything better.

Plus Washington may be without two of their best offensive players in Kyle Kuzma and former Piston Marvin Bagley III with injuries. While the Pistons still fight every now and then, the Wizards are just plain bad.

Under 236.5 (-105) at BetMGM

On paper, this is a marquee match-up, but the Sixers just aren’t the same without Joel Embiid who is going to miss some time with a knee injury.

Philly is 4-11 without Embiid in the line-up and fading fast in the East….both Cleveland the Knicks are coming on strong. Philly needs more production from Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris, but defenses can concentrate on them because they don’t have to worry about Embiid down load.

Golden State has shown a little life lately, winning three of four, but still are out of the playoffs if they started today. Don’t be surprised if they make a move at the trading deadline.

Six of the last seven match-ups between these two teams have gone under. For the season, Golden State is 28-19 over/under and the Sixers are 29-19-1, but this is a big total. Golden State doesn’t shoot that well anymore and the Sixers don’t get the same offensive production.

Pistons +13 (-110) at DraftKings

Kings standout forward Domas Sabonis has scored a double-double in 32 straight games, one of the longest streaks in NBA history.

These two teams met last month. Piston fans may remember this was the game where Detroit scored a season-high 47 points in the first quarter….then lost by 21 points as Sacramento outscored Detroit by 18 points in the fourth quarter. The spread in this one has moved up from 11.5, but the Pistons are 23-25-1 against the spread. If only that was straight up.

Sacramento is a good team, coming off a seven-game road trip where they went 5-2. They got clobbered by the Cavs Monday, showing some fatigue. De’Aaron Fox has scored 25.3 points in his last 10 games.

The Pistons know they can play with the Kings and of course I don’t think they win, but they can keep it under the spread.