Now that the 2025 NBA postseason has begun, the basketball betting market is hotter than ever. CBS Sports will be providing daily picks for the duration of the postseason. Sam Quinn will make at least one pick for every game between now and the NBA Finals.
The Pistons mixed up their defensive coverage in Game 1, putting Jalen Duren on Josh Hart so he could serve as a help-defender while letting wings guard Karl-Anthony Towns to take away his 3-point shot. Towns was great in Game 1, scoring 23 points on 14 shots. the Knicks went away from him in the second half of Game 2, and sure enough, they came up short. Jalen Brunson can’t do this alone, and they can’t expect Cam Payne to bail them out with a 21-0 run in the fourth quarter again. This series depends on the Knicks getting Towns going. That will be their Game 3 priority, and I’m expecting it to prove successful. The Pick: Towns Over 22.5 Points
I don’t care where these games are getting played. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Grizzlies can play a competitive basketball game against the Thunder. They’ve played six times this year. The Thunder have won all six by double digits. The combined margin is 145 points. Memphis isn’t the same team without Brandon Clarke and Jaylen Wells and the Grizzlies are limping into the offseason. The Thunder will shuffle them out of the playoffs without much effort. The Pick: Thunder -9.5
Norm Powell competed for an All-Star slot early in the season. A few important things happened after that. The first is that he missed almost a month with knee and hamstring issues. He hasn’t quite been the same since coming back, averaging only 15.1 points per game to close out the season after averaging 24.2 before the injuries arose. The second is that Kawhi Leonard came back into his own as a healthy superstar. With the playoffs now here, more of the offense has tilted in Leonard’s direction. With James Harden also running things in pick-and-roll, there just isn’t much scoring volume left over for Powell. He has 25 points through two games, and his scoring should stay on the lower side in this series. The Pick: Powell Under 16.5 Points
