The month of February closes with a slate of important games on the NBA schedule and a TNT doubleheader featuring teams either in a playoff spot or looking to sneak into the top 10. The Los Angeles Lakers extended their winning streak to three games with a comeback win over the Mavs on Sunday pulling within a game of a play-in spot. The club will monitor a foot injury to LeBron James, though he finished Sunday’s game after sustaining the injury. The Lakers visit the West’s second-seed Memphis in the first of the twin bill on February 28. The nightcap has Minnesota at the Clippers in a matchup of teams trying to hold on to a postseason spot.
Just how tight is the Western Conference? Well, only five wins separate fourth-place Phoenix from No. 13 Oklahoma City. So there is plenty of importance tacked on to the games, especially in the West, and six of the 10 games on the slate are West matchups. In the East the Milwaukee Bucks remained hot beating Phoenix on Sunday without Giannis Antetokounmpo running their winning streak to 14 games with payouts in nine of them. The Bucks attempt to extend their streak with a visit to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday.
NBA Parlay Picks for Tuesday, February 28
Milwaukee Bucks at Brooklyn Nets
You have to think the luck will run out soon. The Bucks extended their winning streak to 14 beating Phoenix 104-101 on Sunday, though they failed to cover the 3.5-point line. More impressive was that they did it without Antetokounmpo getting solid outings from Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez, who picked up the scoring slack in the Freak’s absence by combining for 55 points. Giannis is in the discussion for MVP averaging 31.2 points and 12.0 rebounds and it’s not easy taking one of if not the best player in the NBA out of the lineup. But the Bucks have survived playing stingy defense and getting contributions from a deep bench. And the Nets are a different looking team from the one that beat Milwaukee at home in December. Dealing Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant made them less scary and the Nets dropped six of eight after a narrow loss to Atlanta on Sunday.
Parlay Pick: Milwaukee ATS
Los Angeles Lakers at Memphis Grizzlies
The Lakers have been better since changing up the roster at the deadline winning three straight and four of five. They were down by as many as 27 points to the Mavs before storming back for 111-108 win on Sunday. LeBron sustained a foot injury in that game, though, and was severely hobbled as he continued to play. We know he’s a tough dude and will want to play on Tuesday but either way, he won’t be as effective and the Lakers will suffer because of it. The Griz are seven games under .500 on the road showing us just how good they’ve been at home to hold down the No. 2 seed in the West. And we’ve seen the Lakers do this all season. When it looks like things are finally going their way they hit a pot hole. The young Griz will try and run the Lakers off the floor and they will succeed.
Parlay Pick: Memphis ATS
San Antonio Spurs at Utah Jazz
The teams played the first of two consecutive games on Saturday with the Jazz cruising to a 118-102 home victory getting the payout as a 10.5-point favorite. And there isn’t much reason to believe things will be different on Tuesday. The Spurs have lost 16 straight games with a roster that according to Gregg Popovich is not a 48-minute team. That allowed the Jazz to runaway in the second half scoring 63 points in the final 24 minutes against the NBA’s worst defensive outfit. The Spurs actually allowed fewer than their season average of points given up, but when opponents get what Utah got the results usually aren’t good for the Spurs, who don’t have the offensive firepower to keep up. San Antonio is one of the teams not in the postseason picture while the Jazz are in the thick of the congested Western Conference standings needing wins to stay there or possibly move up. And this is a game they need in order to do that. Utah has played strong defensively bolstered by the play of Walker Kessler, who blocked five shots and grabbed 10 rebounds to go along with nine points in Saturday’s win.
Parlay Pick: Utah ATS
