NBA Playoffs Best Bets for April 24: The Clippers and Nuggets Are Underwhelming

The Better Team So Far

This series is tied at 1-1 only because Detroit, a young team experiencing playoff jitters, lacked composure toward the end of Game 1, committing ridiculous turnovers and making other mistakes that led to New York’s victory.

As the better team through two games, even though those two games took place in New York, Detroit feels undervalued as a home underdog.

New York’s most recent scoring output — 100 points, with 37 of them coming from Jalen Brunson, many of whose points resulted from free throws — attests to the quality of Detroit’s coaching stuff, which has been able to make New York’s half-court offense look bad for the majority of this series, including Game 2 when Paul Reed filled in admirably for rim-protector Isaiah Stewart, who might return in Game 3.

Detroit has done a great job of limiting Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored ten points in Game 2 as he suffered from the Pistons’ willingness to send extra help to congest the interior where he wants to operate.

Defending Jalen Brunson

Brunson’s high point totals should not undermine our confidence in Ausar Thompson, who is graded as an excellent perimeter defender.

Thompson is so far inside Brunson’s head that Brunson celebrated when Thompson fouled out. Brunson is trying absurdly hard to draw fouls. In New York, he has benefited from a home whistle. He has drawn 23 fouls in this series, which is a ridiculous number. The rate at which he is being fouled per drive is also ridiculously high. His flopping and foul-baiting will not work as well in Detroit. 

But even if Brunson continues to draw a lot of fouls, foul-baiting is not much of a strategy at the end of the day. Ultimately, what matters in our analysis is Thompson’s established track record of limiting the field goal efficiency of stars like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Maxey. 

With Detroit’s pressure on Brunson, wearing him down, and its congestion both of passing lanes inside and of the interior, New York will continue to struggle to score.

The Knicks did not have the layup lines that they enjoyed in Game 1. They scored 94 points in Game 2 and will score fewer points in Game 3 when Brunson’s scoring declines.

Cade Cunningham

Detroit’s star point guard looked much better — and certainly more composed — in his second ever playoff game, Game 2, where he scored 33 points.

While it’s always important to watch out for adjustments and changes in the NBA playoffs, some things stay the same. Cade Cunningham showed in Game 2 that he can handle OG Anunoby’s defense on him even though Anunoby is New York’s best candidate to contain him.

Cunningham’s success in isolation and in off-ball actions enables him to remain a solid contributor to his team’s offense despite New York’s determination to attack him aggressively on ball-screens.

Detroit won Game 2 despite shooting 6 of 27 from deep. One must expect Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley to improve after they combined for 1-for-14 from deep in Game 2.

Beasley will go from making six threes in one game to one in another. He was fantastic in Game 1 and is a great bounce-back candidate in Game 2. His shooting will help Detroit score more than 100 points and thus to score even more points than it needs to in order to beat the Knicks again.

NBA Pick: Pistons ML (-103) at BetOnline

Pistons ML (-103)

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Thursday, April 24, 2025 – 09:30 PM EDT at FedEx Forum