Free NBA Picks Today: Best Bets for Wednesday, May 15

Free NBA Picks Today: Best Bets for Wednesday, May 15

This article is part of our NBA Picks series.

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Best Bets

PJ Washington over 2.5 threes (-125) at OKC

DraftKings, 3:47 PM CT

Alex Barutha: The Thunder are doing everything they can to lock down Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic. The duo has been limited to 36.3 PPG over the past three games. OKC has been tolerating Dallas' role players getting decent looks off. Washington is the primary example. He's 17-for-34 from distance over the past three games, with 20 of those being labeled as "wide open" per NBA.com. If someone is taking 11 threes per game and half of them are completely uncontested, I'm just going to assume they can knock down three of them.

Kyrie Irving O5.5 assists at OKC (-140)

FanDuel Sportsbook, 3pm CT

Nick Whalen: While I don't love the price, I do love the number for Kyrie, who's been facing hard double teams for much of the series. The Thunder have succeeded in limiting him as a scorer, but he's been able to find open shooters to the tune of 27 assists over his last three games. I see not reason why OKC won't continue with that same strategy tonight, and even if Irving is more aggressive in attacking those doubles, this still feels like a very reasonable assists number.

Jayson Tatum U29.5 points vs. CLE (+102)

BetRivers, 3pm CT

Nick Whalen: The pricing at other books varies from -125 to -115, but we'll take the plus money at BetRivers. This isn't necessarily a bet against Tatum – it's a bet against this being a competitive game. The Cavs will again be down Donovan Mitchell – and perhaps Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert, as well – and while they were able to hang in with Boston in Game 4, I fully expect Boston to slam the door shut at home tonight. Even if Tatum has a big first half, I'm not sure the Celtics will need him to play a full complement of playoff minutes. Prior to Games 3 and 4, in which Tatum scored exactly 33 points, he'd averaged just 20.2 points per game across his previous five – all of which were blowouts.

Darius Garland over 23.5 points (+130) versus Boston Celtics

DraftKings 1:30 p.m. CT

Kirien Sprecher: After a slow start to the postseason, Garland exploded for a playoff-high 30 points in Game 4 while Donovan Mitchell was sidelined due to a strained calf. Garland got up a season-high 27 shots during the loss and should see similar usage in Game 5, as Mitchell is expected to remain out. Garland has attempted at least 20 shots 12 times this season. He scored at least 23 points in nine of those contests while averaging 26.8 points on 42.4 percent shooting.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Alex Barutha
Alex is RotoWire's Chief NBA Editor. He writes articles about daily fantasy, year-long fantasy and sports betting. You can hear him on the RotoWire NBA Podcast, Sirius XM, VSiN and other platforms. He firmly believes Robert Covington is the most underrated fantasy player of the past decade.
Kirien Sprecher
Kirien Sprecher is a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate who has covered the NBA, NFL and MLB for RotoWire since early 2021. In his free time, Kirien is probably arguing a foul call during a pickup basketball game at a local rec center.
Nick Whalen
Now in his 10th year with the company, Nick is RotoWire's Senior Media Analyst, a position he took on after several years as the Head of Basketball Content. A multi-time FSGA and FSWA award winner, Nick co-hosts RotoWire's flagship show on Sirius XM Fantasy alongside Jeff Erickson, as well as The RotoWire NBA Show on Sirius XM NBA with Alex Barutha. He also co-hosts RotoWire's Football and Basketball podcasts. You can catch Nick's NBA and NFL analysis on VSiN and DraftKings, as well as RotoWire's various social and video channels. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @wha1en.
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