Best NBA bets, public plays for Tuesday's games

Where the public is betting tonight and best bets from respected handicappers

After 48 games of March Madness over the past few days, we take a small breather with a four-game NBA slate while looking ahead to the Sweet 16 — and MLB Opening Day on Thursday. The sports betting world truly never sleeps.

Recently, it seems as if the bad publicity for sports betting and betting scandals never sleep as well, as we’re in the thick of the Shohei Ohtani interpreter story and ESPN reported on Monday that the NBA is investigating Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter over betting issues relating to prop bets. And that’s not mentioning about four other stories that have made waves over the past few weeks.

I’ll write more about this at some point, but we definitely seem to be approaching (or have reached) critical mass with bad publicity for the industry. These recent events are not being caused because PASPA was repealed in 2018, but many people will make a linear cause-and-effect argument. Some more regulation and guardrails for the industry are likely on the horizon.

Below is a look at how the public is betting tonight’s NBA games, along with a best bet on Bucks-Lakers from Danny Burke and several other aggregated bets from respected NBA handicappers.

DraftKings public betting

Lopsided sides by betting percentage (total wagers):

Oklahoma City Thunder -1: 70% of bets, 79% of $$

Golden State Warriors -3: 65% of bets, 83% of $$

Dallas Mavericks -1: 61% of bets, 75% of $$

Player props

Best bets

Bucks-Lakers

Back on Feb. 6 in Phoenix, Khris Middleton exited the game after playing just six minutes with an injury to his ankle. He would go on to miss over a month of games.

He returned on Sunday, March 17, to face the Suns yet again. In that game, he dropped 22 points and logged 7 assists. Following that performance, he scored 22 at Boston, along with 6 dimes, and then in his most recent outing he only hit five shots and scored 11 points, but did rack up 10 assists.