This article is part of our NBA Picks series.
Nick Whalen: 
Heat (+1.5) at 
Thunder (DK Sportsbook, 12:30pm)
Miami took two bad losses last week to the New York teams, but the Heat rebounded to win at home against the Spurs on Wednesday. Playing in OKC is a tougher ask, but I like Miami to cover the 1.5, and probably win this game. The Thunder are the best team in the NBA against the spread, but they're only 7-7 ATS as a home favorite this season. Miami is also a .500 team ATS as a road underdog, so I'll side with what I think is the more talented team. The Thunder have also dropped back-to-back games at home by a combined 24 points.
Alex Barutha: 
Bulls at 
76ers, under 215.0 (William Hill sportsbook, 2:52 PM)
This line opened at 216.5 in most places, so some value has been bet out of it already. That's been the result of sharps/big bettors. At the time of writing, only 35 percent of the tickets written for this total have been for the under, but 75 percent of the money is on the under (per the Action Network). A closer look into these teams' recent trends informs us why that might be the case.
The 76ers are 3-1 to the under over the past four games without Joel Embiid, but the single over hit by just one point, and the unders hit by a combined 51.5 points, which is an absurd number. The Bulls have also hit the under three times in a row, and by a decent combined margin of 19.5 points. Chicago is a better defensive team than most casual fans are aware of, and these two squads combine to allow opponents to score just 213.4 points per game -- the 76ers ranking sixth-best with 105.7 PPG and the Bulls ranking 10th-best with 107.7 PPG.
