18.11.2022

NBA Best Bets November 18th

A big Friday in the NBA wouldn’t be complete without some best bets to go along with the games. Out of the 13 games being played, we’ll be focusing on three of them as we have one favorite, one underdog, and one point total to highlight.

Best Bet #1: Indiana Pacers (-5)

The 7-6 Pacers have been a nice surprise this season both when it comes to winning and also making their gambling backers a nice profit. Tonight they will head to Houston to take on the Rockets as -5 point favorites, and I’ll be laying the points with them as my first best bet of the night.

Indiana is seventh in offensive rating this season and has relied primarily on the stellar play of Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Mathurin. Their opponent tonight hasn’t been able to stop anyone this season and is currently ranked 28th in the defensive rating so Haliburton should have no problem scoring and getting his offense the best looks possible all night.

The Pacers like to push in transition a lot and rank second in the league in fastbreak points and they have the perfect opportunity tonight to push the pace often. Houston is ranked 30th in fastbreak points allowed so their transition defense could cause them to fall behind by a big margin tonight.

Despite the Pacers' struggles on defense this season they still have the advantage tonight against this Rockets team ranked 26th in offensive rating and struggling to find any consistency amongst their young line-up.

I think Indiana has the capability to put on a big offensive performance tonight and continue to build on their 8-2 ATS record in their last 10 games.

Best Bet #2: Orlando Magic (+9.5)

Orlando comes into tonight with a 4-11 record and +9.5 point road underdogs in Chicago against the 6-9 Bulls. Chicago has dealt with a lot of injury problems early on this season and has struggled to find consistency or build any momentum, as for tonight I don’t think they can build a big enough lead to cover this number.

The Magic will be without Paolo Banchero again but they are expected to have Gary Harris back in the line-up for the first time this season. Despite their record, the Magic actually have a better offensive rating than the Bulls this season. Franz Wagner and Wendall Carter Jr. have stepped up big-time offensively in Banchero’s absence and can be trusted to keep the Magic in the game tonight.

Chicago might have the 11th-best defensive rating but it hasn’t shown in their play as of late. The Bulls have allowed 113 points or more in five of their last six games and looked like a completely different team on the defensive end. With that being said I think it will be difficult to win by double digits tonight against this pesky Magic offense.

Best Bet #3: Miami Heat @ Washington Wizards Over 218.5

Two very similar teams will face off tonight in Washington with the 8-7 Wizards and 7-8 Miami Heat. Both teams have been hard to get a read on this season but I think the point total is at a good number here and a tad too low so that will be my final play of the night.

Both teams have average defensive ratings and have shown all season they have the ability to have bad defensive lapses and big offensive outbursts. I think both these teams will play evenly tonight so if they both come out scoring efficiently this game should be able to go over this number.