Thursday January 8th NBA Betting Picks: Best Player Props and Bets

Only one NBA team among the eight in action Thursday holds a top-six seed in its conference.

That would be the Minnesota Timberwolves, whose 24 victories are more than the 19 combined between Charlotte and Indiana, the only matchup on a light docket not featured here.

Which isn’t to say others won’t take that action, of course.

Yeah, we know more eyes probably will be on Miami’s pro college football team than its pro basketball team tonight, and there’s no Association doubleheader on Amazon Prime, but NBA intrigue remains. These are our top NBA betting picks for Thursday January 8th.

Miami Heat at Chicago Bulls

Miami opened a four-game road trip with Tuesday’s 122-94 clunker at Minnesota, losing to the Timberwolves for the second time in four days while finishing just 35.7% from the floor.

“I feel like we got to this weird time in the season where it just feels like shots aren’t falling,” the Heat’s Bam Adebayo said.

Facing the slumping Bulls should offer a welcome salve.

Chicago faded down the stretch at Detroit on Wednesday, getting outscored 32-16 in the fourth quarter of a 108-93 defeat as coach Billy Donovan bemoaned the Bulls’ lack of inside toughness in their third straight defeat.

That bodes well for the Heat frontcourt of Adebayo (16.9 points a game), Andrew Wiggins (15.9) and Kel’el Ware (12.3).

With Bulls co-leading scorer Coby White (19.2) expected to play after missing the Detroit game due to right calf injury management, Chicago also should amp up its attack.

While the Heat (-7) figure to score more of them, this one should feature its share of points, period.

Over 240 points (-106 with FanDuel)

Cleveland Cavaliers at Minnesota Timberwolves

Minnesota swept the season series a year ago, handing Cleveland two of its 18 defeats.

These Cavaliers already have lost 17 games but have found their form lately, winning four of five after rallying to edge host Indiana on Tuesday as leading scorer Donovan Mitchell sat out (rest).

Mitchell is off the injury report for this one, while Minnesota’s slate is quite clean. Initially listed as questionable (foot) against Miami on Tuesday, Timberwolves top scorer Anthony Edwards went for a game-high 26 points.

Edwards and Mitchell are raring to go in a shootout.

Anthony Edwards and Donovan Mitchell 20+ points (-127 as a two-leg parlay with FanDuel)

Dallas Mavericks at Utah Jazz

Mavericks rookie forward Cooper Flagg needed eight games to lead Dallas in the scoring column, a feat he has accomplished 11 more times in 27 games since.

The most prolific effort during that stretch, of course, came in a 140-133 overtime loss at Utah on Dec. 15, as Flagg tallied a career-best 42 points on 15-for-20 shooting.

Thursday brings Flagg and the Mavs back to Delta Center, which houses the team that yields the most points per game in the NBA (127.0) and the second-worst defensive field-goal percentage (49.2).

While expecting another 40-burger from Flagg probably is asking too much, he ought to be game to go a bit beyond his road scoring average of 19.9 points against a struggling foe on the second leg of a back-to-back, the first of which also needed overtime.

Cooper Flagg 25+ points (+200 with FanDuel)