Find NBA odds throughout the season on the Betway sportsbook. You'll find all the latest spreads, totals, money lines and NBA futures. Or call it how you see it with our live betting in-play. All your NBA betting needs are covered at our online sportsbook.

Visit Betway’s NBA picks page for best bets and predictions throughout the season.

Nobody got knocked out of the postseason last night as Brooklyn beat Cleveland and Minnesota defeated the Clippers.

Well, actually, the play-in games exist in a new category that the NBA considers neither the regular season nor the postseason. You can tweet at Adam Silver if you are confused, and you will not be alone. But first you have to find Silver’s elusive Twitter account.

Whatever the case, we have two games tonight, and a season will end in disappointment for two teams from the foursome of the Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans. And before too long, there will be a grand total of 29 NBA teams whose seasons ended in disappointment. They will all be partying with Frank Vogel, presumably.

As the weather gets warmer, the stakes get higher. So it goes year after year in the Association, where judgements are as harsh as a Siberian winter.

Tonight, one of the biggest questions is whether Zion Williamson, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft, will make his season debut for the Pels. He has been out with a broken foot all season but has been dunking like crazy at the practice facility. 

Likely to play but banged up are Brandon Ingram (hamstring), Devonte Graham (right knee soreness), Herb Jones (right tibia contusion) and Jonas Valanciunas (right ankle soreness) of the Pels along with Lonnie Walker and Jakob Poeltl (back soreness) and Keldon Johnson (knee soreness) of the Spurs.

And that is just the nightcap.

The Hawks will likely be without John Collins (finger, foot) and Lou Williams (lower back), and the Hornets will not have Gordon Hayward (left foot soreness).

Add it all up, and there are a lot of banged up bodies whose absences will impact the way both of these games will be played.

Let’s take them one at a time.

Charlotte at Atlanta

First of all, Trae Young cannot be a villain in his own building. And after seeing what he did to the Knicks and the Sixers last year in the postseason, you really want to bet against this guy?

The Hawks are favored by five against a team they split the season series with, 2-2. Atlanta was 19-15-0 against the spread as a home favorite, while Charlotte was 16-14-1 as a road underdog, so there ain’t much to lean on there, trend-wise.

Young scored 19, 25, 30 and 9 in the four games, the final one representing the only game all season in which he failed to score at least 10 points as the Hornets were relentless with double-teams. "We made the game very difficult for him," Charlotte’s Montrezl Harrell said. "We knew that he is the guy who makes them go. Stats show that if he scores more than 30 points they generally win."

Young’s point total over/under is fairly high, 31.5. Last year in 13 postseason games he scored at least 30 eight times, only twice at home. So under 31.5 is one of your picks (-115), especially given the defensive success Charlotte had last time. It is a guaranteed that they will do it again.

Miles Bridges of the Hornets went off for 35 points the last time these teams played, and his over/under looks low at 22.5 (-105).

What else? The Hornets got Harrell from the Wizards specifically to lift them up in these types of games, and do-or-die meetings are about as tense as they get. We like Harrell to score over 9.5 points (+105) in this one. 

Remember, the Cavs and the Clippers both lost last night but will get a second chance Friday. The teams that lose tonight have to head home for a long summer. The over/under is fairly high at 235.5 with both teams above average defensively. The Hawks went 20-14-0 on O/Us as a home favorite, but they went over just once in their final five regular season games. In their four meetings with Charlotte, the over hit just once. That is enough of a trend for us, so go with the under (-110). Clint Capela going over 12.5 points (-120) also is a line we like.

San Antonio at New Orleans

The Pels are favored by 5.5 at home, where they were a healthy 10-4-1 against the spread as a favorite, a mark bettered by only one team: The Chicago Bulls. San Antonio was 19-12-1 as a road underdog, so that pretty much cancels out what the Pels did against the spread. Look, we do not ever want to doubt Gregg Popovich, so right away we are going to tell you to take the points (-115).

The money line (+175) is a much more interesting proposition, especially because the Spurs won by 15, 10 and 4 in going 3-1 against New Orleans in the season series, the lone loss coming by 33 points in San Antonio despite the Hornets playing without Brandon Ingram.

Tonight, New Orleans is expected to have everyone available with the exception of Zion Williamson. Ingram (hamstring) is listed as a probable. The winner of this one is a tough call with so much on the line and so little to cite in terms of what these teams have done in the postseason in recent seasons. The Pelicans have not made the playoffs since 2018, and the Spurs haven’t been there 2020 (when they defeated the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 before dropping that series in seven games).

Dejounte Murray had two of his 13 triple-doubles against New Orleans, so one well-priced wager that we like is his triple-double prop (+400) (although we caution against using it in a parlay). The over/under is just 226, and the Spurs have gone over just 12 times in 30 games as a road ‘dog, while the Pels have gone over just five times in 15 games as a home favorite. The Pels went over in three of their final four regular season games but were under in eight of nine prior to that. So stay away from that wager.

Instead, go with Keldon Johnson over 19.5 points (-130), C.J. McCollum under 26.5 points (-115) and Ingram to rise to the occasion and have a double-double (+390).