There won’t be a greater single day for a selected sport than Christmas for basketball. The NBA offers us 12-plus hours of hoops from a rigorously curated group of the league’s most attention-grabbing groups. Choose the video games you are most excited to see earlier than the season, and odds are, that recreation goes to get performed on Christmas.

Structurally talking, Christmas is an ideal day for basketball betting. There’s just one recreation performed at a time. With out overlap, you may reset after every recreation, regulate your items, rethink traces and dive again in when the chance strikes. So let’s undergo Wednesday’s 5 video games and decide the most effective bets from every to preview the NBA’s Christmas extravaganza.

The place to look at NBA Christmas Day video games

All video games on Wednesday are being broadcast on ABC and will probably be streaming on fubo (Attempt free of charge). 

• Knicks 117, Spurs 114 (Grades)
• Timberwolves 105, Mavericks 99 (Grades)
• 76ers 118, Celtics 114 (Grades)
• Lakers 115, Warriors 113 (Grades)
• Suns 110, Nuggets 100 (Grades)

• Betting line: Knicks -9; O/U 223.5

The secret towards Victor Wembanyama is spacing. The Knicks are going to need to preserve him as far-off from the basket as attainable to create affordable driving lanes for his or her ball-handlers, and the simplest manner to try this is to verify their heart is taking pictures 3s. San Antonio may counter by placing Wembanyama on Josh Hart, the weakest Knicks shooter, so he can function a helper, however Hart is making 40% of his 3s this season and giving Karl-Anthony Cities a mismatch when he’s taking part in in addition to he’s looks like a nonstarter. So count on Wembanyama to protect Cities, and for the Knicks to be intentional about Cities taking pictures 3s to maintain him the Defensive Participant of the 12 months favourite away from the basket. The Choose: Cities Over 2.5 3s

• Betting line: Mavericks -5.5; O/U 221.5

We noticed this matchup within the playoffs a season in the past, and Dallas received it comfortably, however extra pertinently, the Timberwolves are only a mess proper now. They miss the spacing Cities introduced. The decline of Mike Conley and the introduction of Julius Randle has eliminated quite a lot of the offense’s construction. The protection has gone from impenetrable to backyard selection good. I simply cannot fairly decide a workforce taking part in this chaotically to win on the highway towards a Dallas workforce that has come collectively superbly over the previous few weeks. The Mavericks are 8-2 of their final 10. Luka Doncic is able to make his MVP push. These are simply two groups shifting in numerous instructions. The Choose: Mavericks -5.5

• Beting line: Celtics -10; O/U 222

Derrick White loves taking part in the Sixers. He averaged over 18 factors per recreation towards them final season and 16 factors per recreation towards them the 12 months earlier than, and take into account, his general scoring wasn’t practically as excessive as it’s now. Philly’s sluggish entrance courtroom and horrible point-of-attack protection simply brings the most effective out of White. Count on him to be aggressive in a recreation the Celtics ought to management. The Choose: White Over 14.5 Factors

• Betting line: Warriors -4; O/U 225.5

Hey, talking of messes, the Warriors are 3-10 of their final 13 video games. They’re nonetheless working Dennis Schroder into the fold, and the Lakers clearly know Schroder fairly properly. The Lakers are certainly not excellent, however they’ve quietly tightened just a few issues up recently. Their once-abhorrent protection ranks No. 2 within the NBA over the previous six video games, hardly a significant pattern, however a minimum of the trouble and power has improved. That is the fourth time LeBron James and Stephen Curry have met on Christmas, and whereas Curry’s workforce was favored in all three, James received two of them outright. Video games between them are typically fairly shut, so even when the Warriors win, I like having these additional factors in my again pocket in case it goes right down to the wire. The Choose: Lakers +4

• Betting line: Nuggets -3; O/U 233.5

Sure, on paper, this must be a shootout. However these two groups simply performed on Monday in a recreation that produced 207 whole factors. Jamal Murray, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Grayson Allen all missed the sport and it’s unclear who will truly be out there for this one. The Suns rank twenty third in tempo. The Nuggets take the fewest 3-pointers within the NBA. There are simply too many the reason why this recreation might be low-scoring to take such a excessive over. The Choose: Below 233.5