NBA Playoff Picks & Predictions: Round 1 Best Bets for Thursday

My NBA playoff picks and predictions dive into the latest NBA odds for Thursday’s Round 1 schedule.

NBA Playoff Best Bets for Thursday, April 23

• Knicks ML (-110)
• Nuggets ML (-130)

Knicks vs. Hawks Prediction for Game 3

I’m banking on a bounce-back win for New York in my Knicks vs. Hawks prediction ahead of Thursday’s Game 3 in Atlanta.

The Knicks must know they let one slip away in Game 2 at home. New York led by 12 after three quarters, but faltered in the fourth quarter of an eventual 107-106 loss on Monday night. Mikal Bridges missed a jumper as time expired.

I’m not going to overreact to one quarter, especially when the Knicks are normally elite in crunch time. During the regular season, they ranked third in the NBA with a net rating of +20.5 in 124 clutch minutes.

The Knicks have demonstrated they are the superior team in seven of the eight quarters. I think they’ll reclaim home-court advantage tonight.

Nuggets vs. Timberwolves Prediction for Thursday

I’ll take another road team to win Game 3 in my Nuggets vs. Timberwolves prediction.

After taking a 1-0 series lead, Denver led by as many as 19 points in the first half of Game 2. Minnesota was in front by halftime, marking Denver’s second-biggest playoff collapse at home. By the way, the worst was when the Nuggets led by 20 in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Timberwolves.

This is a true rivalry, with these teams facing off in the playoffs for the third time in four years. They don’t like each other, and that was proven when Jaden McDaniels called out the entire Nuggets’ team for being bad defenders.

If the Nuggets have any legitimate championship aspirations, this is a game they have to win. I’ll take the short price on the better team led by the best offensive player in the league.