Our Staff’s Best Bets for Jazz vs. Hornets, 76ers vs. Clippers, More (March 25)

We’ve got more sweet sixteen games in college basketball tonight, which is where a ton of the attention will be Friday. That means tonight’s seven-game NBA slate will slip under the radar a bit and there’s plenty of value to find.

Our NBA analysts are targeting three matchups on tonight’s slate and are betting one total, one prop and one spread.

Check out their in-depth analysis and best best for Friday night.

NBA Odds & Picks

Utah Jazz vs. Charlotte Hornets

Austin Wang: The initial thought you have with these two teams is a high-scoring game and an easy over, but I am suggesting otherwise.

At the beginning of the season, when scoring was down across the league, the Hornets were one of the few teams that were still pumping out high scoring games due to their fast-paced style and lack of defense. The books began overpricing their totals and that has continued as the Hornets have the highest average closing totals in the league.

This total opened up at 232 last night and has been bet down to 228.5 in a move that I agree with.

Jazz will once again be without Bojan Bogdanovic, their second leading scorer. He shoots 39.2% from behind the arc and is a key cog in their offense. This will be the eighth game he has missed in the month of March.

As a result, the Jazz offense has taken a hit recently. According to the SDQL at Gimme the Dog, they are 17-10 to the under as favorites on the road and they are 9-3 to the under in their previous 12 games.

The Hornets still score at a high rate, but not against the league’s best teams. They are 25-9 to the under versus teams over .500, per the SDQL at Gimme the Dog. They are 25-13 to the under against teams that play at a pace slower than the league average. The Jazz fit the criteria above and the Hornets seem to adapt to their opponents’ style and tempo of play.

Montrezl Harrell’s minutes have ramped down the last few games and I expect maximum utilization from starting center Mason Plumlee to matchup against Rudy Gobert. Plumlee’s presence gives me more confidence on a lower scoring game.

Both teams are jockeying for playoff seeding. The Jazz are not too far behind the Warriors for the third seed, so they need to finish strong to secure homecourt advantage for the first round. The Hornets are in the ninth seed right now — they still have a chance to get some favorable positioning for the Play-In games.

With so much still at stake, I expect the defensive intensity to be high. Thus, my best bet on this game is the under at 228.5, and I would play it down to 227.

Golden State Warriors vs. Atlanta Hawks

Brandon Anderson: Kevon Looney’s minutes have been all over the place lately, and so has his production. It’s pretty clear at this point that Looney is a key piece of the Warriors rotation, but with Stephen Curry sidelined and the team resting guys and trying to get into a rhythm with its youngsters, Looney’s minutes are bouncing around.

Last game, Looney played 29 minutes…