The start of the 2024-25 NBA season is officially here. Make sure you check out the fantastic work of Jonathan Von Tobel, who will be writing NBA features for us twice per week this year. Also, try and listen to A Numbers Game every morning, as Kelley Bydlon often dishes out his favorite NBA picks. But I’ll be giving out NBA best bets and player props here as often as possible, and I’ll also occasionally write up features on big news that shakes up the league. So, make sure you check out my work throughout the season. With that out of the way, let’s get into some NBA best bets and NBA player props for Friday, November 8th.
MORE: Check out our Pro Picks page for everything our experts have on November 8th
NBA Best Bets Today – November 8th
Brooklyn Nets at Boston Celtics – 7:30 pm ET
The Nets have been better than expected to start the season, but this is a very bad matchup for them. Sure, the defending champions are a bad matchup for anyone. But this Brooklyn team is currently relying heavily on the play of Cam Thomas and Dennis Schroder. Well, Boston has the best defensive backcourt in the NBA. Jrue Holiday and Derrick White are fully capable of shutting the water off for Thomas and Schroder, and that would make it nearly impossible for this Nets team to efficiently score against the Celtics.
As for Boston’s offense, I’m not too worried about Jaylen Brown being out. Jayson Tatum should be able to feast in this game, and the rest of the Celtics can light it up from 3. Against a Nets team that doesn’t defend very well, that has the potential to be a real problem.
This just feels like a game that could get really ugly right away. The Celtics are 12-9-1 against the spread as home favorites of 12.5 to 18 points under Joe Mazzulla, and they’re also 12-8 ATS when coming off a home loss. The latter one is really important to me. While it can be easy for good teams to sleepwalk through matchups with mediocre opponents, Boston is coming off a loss to Golden State on Wednesday. This is a very competitive Celtics team that will want to quickly put that behind them. So, they should come out with some energy here.
Bet: Celtics -12.5 (-113)
Milwaukee Bucks at New York Knicks – 7:30 pm ET
Philadelphia 76ers at Los Angeles Lakers – 10:00 pm ET
I’m throwing in another two-leg moneyline parlay for tonight. In the first game, I’m rolling with the Knicks to beat the Bucks. This is a battle between two unimpressive teams to start the year, but there are way more positives with New York. And overall, it’s hard to believe in Milwaukee to competently defend for 48 minutes here. Things did look much better with Andre Jackson Jr. in the starting lineup, so perhaps the Bucks will turn things up a notch defensively moving forward. But this is also the second night of a back-to-back for them. And I just trust New York to generate easy looks with regularity tonight. I also think the Knicks will have some juice defensively as they get to play at the Garden.
As for the second game, there’s just no reason not to like the Lakers. This Sixers team is without Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, and Paul George likely won’t be able to lead Philadelphia to a win over Los Angeles on his own. The Lakers might be on a bit of a skid, but they’re a good basketball team. They also have a relatively clean injury report.
PARLAY: Knicks ML & Lakers ML (-128 – 1.5 units)
NBA Player Props Today – November 8th
Washington Wizards at Memphis Grizzlies – 8:00 pm ET
This is a great offensive matchup for Bilal Coulibaly. Both of these teams are top five in the NBA in pace of play, so this is going to be an up-and-down affair. Memphis is also just 14th in the league in defensive rating this season, and the team can struggle to guard wings with on-ball ability. Well, that perfectly describes the version of Coulibaly that we have seen in 2024-25. The Frenchman is averaging 17.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game this season. Those seasonal averages would put him Over tonight’s PRA total pretty comfortably, and that doesn’t even factor in the awesome matchup. That said, I’m firing away on this and putting a little more on it than I usually do with my NBA player props. I feel even better about it because of the 39 minutes he played last game. Coulibaly is going to be out there a ton, giving him a lot of chances to cash this. He just needs to avoid foul trouble.
Bet: Coulibaly Over 22.5 Points + Rebounds + Assists (-105 – 1.5 units)
Los Angeles Clippers at Sacramento Kings – 10:00 pm ET
I’m taking another shot on Terance Mann to go Over 10.5 points and rebounds tonight. I lost on this play on Wednesday, but that was really because Los Angeles ended up blowing out Philadelphia. But Mann had nine combined points and rebounds in 21 minutes of action. He confidently knocked down a triple and was a little more aggressive in going to the basket. That will be big for him in earning Ty Lue’s trust as a big-minute player again. Lue doesn’t want Mann being passive when the ball is swung in his direction. The Clippers can’t overachieve this season unless everybody is capable and willing on both ends of the floor.
This is also a pretty good matchup for all Clippers players. The Kings play at a pretty fast pace and they aren’t anything special defensively. So, there should be opportunities for players to get out and score in transition. That should help Mann get an easy bucket or two. Combining that with the amount of open 3s he’ll be able to take is big.
Bet: Mann Over 10.5 Points + Rebounds (+100)
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2024-25 NBA Record: 39-30 (+8.87 units)
