Now that the 2024 NBA postseason has begun, the basketball betting market is hotter than ever. CBS Sports will be providing daily picks for the duration of the postseason. Sam Quinn will make at least one pick for every game between now and the NBA Finals.
Indiana Pacers vs. New York Knicks
The average margin of victory in the nine total playoff games the Knicks have played thus far is just under 5.9 points. Eight of those nine games have featured either a tie or a one-point deficit in the fourth quarter. Every Knicks playoff game is close. Maybe that's a function of their toughness lifting them through the hard times. Maybe it's a function of their injured roster's limitations preventing them from running away with games. I don't know. I'm just never going to predict that this Knicks team, after everything we've seen thus far this postseason, is going to lose a game comfortably. I'm taking the points and trusting their recent history. The Pick: Knicks +6
Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Denver Nuggets
Denver's offense found itself in Game 3 with 117 points. Minnesota's was obviously far worse, but in ways that are pretty fixable. While Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards made their 3-pointers, the rest of the team shot 3-of-20 from deep. That's probably going to improve, especially since role players tend to shoot better at home. Couple that with the fact that Edwards and Towns combined to score 20 points below their postseason average, and even a bit of regression to the mean should drag the point total up. Game 3 went over this total, and I'm expecting Game 4 to do so as well. The Pick: Over 204.5
