Best NBA Betting Lines March 26: Our Top Picks including Bucks vs Grizzlies

It’s an interesting time in the NBA where you have some teams jockeying for playoff positioning, and others merely counting down the minutes left in the season. The more desperate clubs are usually the ones who rack up the wins during this stretch, but there’s always that random game where a star playing for a contract next season wills his team to victory. Season-long trends don’t matter as much as they did back in, say, January. It pays to pay close attention to how each team has looked over the past couple of weeks, especially those trying to keep their stars fresh for the postseason.

Milwaukee Bucks at Memphis Grizzlies

Best Bet: Grizzlies -1 / -110 (FanDuel)

You shouldn’t put much stock into a team’s record on a given day of the week, however… the last three times Milwaukee has played on a Saturday, they’ve faced fairly decent opponents (Brooklyn, Golden State, and Minnesota, respectively), and lost all three games. In fact, those are the only games the Bucks have dropped since the All-Star break. Can Memphis – without the services of Ja Morant – push that streak to four?

It looks likely, especially since the Bucks may be short-handed in this one as both Giannis Antetokounmpo (knee) and Khris Middleton (wrist) missed Milwaukee’s last game due to injury. But even if one or both of them suit up, the Grizzlies have proven to be remarkably resilient without Morant in the lineup this year, winning 15 out of 17 contests. More importantly, Memphis is a league-best 48-26 against the spread the season, including 13-3 ATS in their last 16 games at home.

Indiana Pacers at Toronto Raptors

Best Bet: Raptors -9 / -110 (DraftKings)

Indiana’s defense has gotten progressively worse each month of the 2021-22 campaign, and so far in March, they’ve allowed opponents to score 119.8 points per game. Admittedly, even with the Pacers’ matador-like defense, it’s still a big number for the Raptors to cover. That said, Indiana is just 5-9 ATS since the All-Star break, while Toronto is 7-2 against the spread over their last nine outings.

With a little over two weeks left in the season, the Raptors – fresh off of a 13-point win over the sixth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers – need every victory they can muster in order to avoid a spot in the play-in tournament. Conversely, the Pacers are firmly entrenched in 13th place in the Eastern Conference, and are essentially just playing out the string at this point. Malcolm Brogdon is expected back tonight after missing the last three games due to rest, but shooting guard Chris Duarte will miss his fifth straight game due to a toe injury.

San Antonio Spurs at New Orleans Pelicans

Best Bet: Pelicans -5 / -110 (FOXBet)

Not only do the Pelicans need a win tonight in order to even the season series with the Spurs, but a victory would put three games between them and San Antonio for the race for the 9th seed in the Western Conference. New Orleans held the Spurs to 36 percent shooting in a 124-91 victory just eight days ago… the winning margin likely won’t be 33 points this evening, but a Pelicans’ team that’s 8-3-1 ATS as a home favorite this season should have enough to cover the number.

San Antonio hasn’t beaten a team that was at full strength since eking out a two-point win over the Utah Jazz on March 11. To be fair, a decent amount of New Orleans’ recent success has been due to catching short-handed teams on the right night, but the team’s offense has been notably better since the arrival of C.J. McCollum. During the month of March, the Pelicans have averaged 118.9 points per game.