NBA Finals Betting Picks & Predictions For Game 2

After taking the 1-0 lead on Tuesday, the Suns host the Bucks for Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night. The Suns continued their excellent postseason form, notching their 13th playoff win in 17 games. It was also their 7th double-digit victory in this postseason. They’re now 64-25 SU over the whole season and 54-33-2 ATS. The Bucks lost Game 1 of the Finals but will be happy that Giannis Antetokunmpo is back. The Greek Freak missed two games due to a knee injury. Still, he wasn’t enough to prevent the 6th loss of the playoffs for the Bucks. Their overall record now is 58-32. Against the spread, the Bucks are 42-48. The meeting on Thursday will be the fourth game between the two teams this season. The Suns came out as winners in all three previous games.

Line Movement

The Suns opened as -5.5 favorites and the line has mostly remained stable so far. It’s about the same as the line for Game 1 which closed at -5. The total has seen more movement, dropping from the opening 221.5 to 219.5. It’s worth noting that 5 previous matchups between the two all went over this line.

Notes on Milwaukee Bucks

The sheer presence of Giannis on the court is a boost for the Bucks. However, on Tuesday, it was clear that he’s still not at 100%. He had a solid game with 20 points and 17 rebounds but lacked his usual explosiveness. Khris Middleton led the scoring for the Bucks with 29, while their third star, Jrue Holiday, had only 10 points on 4-14 shooting. On defense, coach Bud decided to switch most of the time which led to plenty of mismatch opportunities for Chris Paul and Devin Booker. Brook Lopes particularly had a hard time dealing with those two on the switches. We’ll see if the Bucks keep up with this defense in Game 2 or make some adjustments and bring back more of their trademark drop coverage.

Donte DiVincenzo remains the only absentee for the Bucks.

Notes on Phoenix Suns

Like many times before in this postseason, the Suns did everything right on Tuesday. They took care of the ball, took advantage of mismatches, and hit their shots. Chris Paul had another vintage performance with 32 points and 9 assists while Booker was not far behind, scoring 27 and adding 6 assists. Deandre Ayton continues to dominate the paint no matter who’s he playing against. He finished Game 1 with another impressive double-double of 22 points and 19 rebounds. The possible issue for the Suns going forward may be their poor defense of the 3-point line as they allowed the Bucks to shoot 44.4% from the deep on Tuesday. Another worry for coach Williams is an injury to Dario Saric who has been valuable in the postseason as a backup big and floor spacer.

Saric is out for the season and is the only player unavailable for the Suns.

Betting Pick: The Bucks +5.5

The Suns deservedly won Game 1, but everything broke right for them. On the other hand, the Bucks had a lot of issues and have plenty of room for improvement, especially on defense. Plus, we can expect Giannis to be even better with two extra days of rest. We see a competitive game and for Milwaukee to stay close throughout the contest.