Memphis Grizzlies vs Minnesota Timberwolves betting tips and predictions for Tuesday’s NBA Western Conference Playoff game on NBA TV. After an upset in Game 1, the Memphis Grizzlies now face a must-win situation against the Minnesota Timberwolves as the two teams meet up at the FedEx forum tonight. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Memphis Grizzlies
Allowing 130 points wasn’t a good look for the Grizzlies in Game 1 as they fell to the Timberwolves despite being 7-point favourites to win at home. Ja Morant had a solid game with 32 points, Dillon Brooks had 24, and Jaren Jackson Jr. finished with 7 blocks, but defensively there was something missing for the Grizzlies.
Going 2-0 down tonight is not an option, so some things will definitely have to improve. Not allowing 41 points in the first quarter would be a good start, Memphis led only twice early on in the game, it is never easy to win games coming from behind. This team has gone 10-2 SU in their last 12 home games, against the Timberwolves they are 5-1 ATS in the last 6 played at FedEx Forum so I think we’ll see a different approach tonight from Morant and co.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Not a lot of people expected Minnesota to win the series opener, but here we are. Anthony Edwards showed off in the win with an efficient 36 points and 6 assists, showing no fear in his first ever playoff game. He also got huge help from Karl-Anthony Towns who had 29 on the night shooting 11-for-18 from the field, while the 3rd member of the Big 3 D’Angelo Russell struggled to score just 10 points on 2-for-11 from the field.
As a team, Minnesota finished the game shooting 50% from the field and 39% from three, while also holding Memphis to a really poor 25.9% shooting from three. With that kind of effort on the defensive end, they’ll be in a solid position to go up 2-0 tonight. This is a young team though, so I’m not sure what we can expect from them tonight, but with 6 wins in a row vs teams from the Western Conference, they won’t be lacking any confidence here for sure.
Memphis simply cannot afford to go down 2-0 before heading to Minnesota for games 3 and 4. I’m expecting a much better effort on defence, they held the Timberwolves to 108 and 118 points in the 2 home wins during the regular season. Back the home team here.
Memphis Grizzlies vs Minnesota Timberwolves Predictions & Odds
I’m expecting a ton of adjustments on the defensive end from the Grizzlies, they cannot afford to run with the Timberwolves as they’ve lost 3 times against them this season when that was the case. The projected total has been set at 241 points which is a high number, especially for a playoff game. In the 4 regular season games these teams went over 241 points just once, the game will definitely slow down tonight.
There’s also the rust factor for Memphis which has now been shaken off, so I think we can expect far more than just 1 block from the entire team (not counting Jaren Jackson Jr. who had 7). These teams are averaging 236 points per game in the last 10 meetings, as crazy as it sounds that would still put us under the total tonight. Memphis had the 4th best defensive efficiency during the regular season, I think we’ll see that on full display tonight. So even if these are the 1st and 3rd fastest paced teams in the NBA right now, I think going under the total is the smart bet for tonight’s game.
