Jan 20, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) drives to the basket beside Phoenix Suns center Mason Plumlee (22) in the first quarter at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images My bio shows that I live near Chicago by way of St. Louis and central Illinois.
Jimmy Butler joined the Bulls shortly after that relocation, and it wasn’t long after that when Bulls TV analyst Stacey King bestowed a memorable nickname upon the sparkling small forward: JGB.
JGB stood for “Jimmy Gets Buckets” then. These days, it’s “Jimmy’s Gotten Burdensome.” Butler’s recent indefinite ban from the Miami Heat for repeated conduct detrimental to the team is unfortunate, and I’m sure Heat faithful can think of a more colorful description.
His latest departure comes with Miami holding the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference by one half game and facing a matchup with the conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers tonight.
We look at that Butler-less affair and other action in the NBA and NHL in today’s Best Bets. Let’s get started.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS AT MIAMI HEAT
The Butler helped do it when the Heat earned a 122-113 home victory against the Cavs on Dec. 8. JGB scored 18 points to join four teammates in double figures, led by Tyler Herro (34) and Duncan Robinson (23).
Cleveland had just four losses when it departed Kaseya Center that night. Now the team has lost three of four and nine times overall.
The Cavaliers will need leading scorer Donovan Mitchell to regroup from his 5-for-16 shooting woes in the previous meeting to even the season series with Miami.
“When things don’t go well, this group kind of takes things personal and has the resiliency to bounce back,” Cleveland’s Max Strus said.
While Herro finds the drama with his team “kind of feels normal now, at this point,” the most recent episode seems like the topper.
Cavaliers -7.5 and Mitchell to score 20+ points as two-leg parlay, +125 (BetMGM)
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DENVER NUGGETS AT NEW YORK KNICKS
Many words rhyme with “Knick,” but the most appropriate one for this writing is “click.”
That’s because New York has scored at least 140 points in successive games for the first time since December 1965. It’s certainly made for an entertaining opening to a five-game homestand against teams in the Western Conference playoff hunt.
Yup, Denver still stands firmly in that number despite two losses to start a five-game Eastern swing. Nikola Jokic returned to form with a triple-double in Chicago on Monday, but the Nuggets’ low volume of 3-point attempts and makes didn’t jive well with the Bulls’ 45.3 percent effort from deep.
The Nuggets have yielded 262 points in consecutive games. In October, they allowed 264 points in a back-to-back, winning both games in overtime. New York hung 145 points on Denver on Nov. 25 behind a 40-point effort from OG Anunoby.
The Knicks click yet again.
Knicks over 124.5 points, +145 (BetMGM)
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MINNESOTA WILD AT TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
This matchup between division-leading Toronto and playoff-contending Minnesota will lack a bit of luster thanks to injuries.
Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov needs surgery for a nagging lower-body injury. A lower-body injury kept the Leafs’ John Tavares out of Saturday’s 2-1 loss in Ottawa, while Matthew Knies and Max Pacioretty were sidelined with upper-body injuries.
Pacioretty practiced Tuesday, but he hasn’t notched a point since Dec. 28. Toronto has scored only twice in two games over the past week, which bodes for another low-scoring affair here.
Under 5.5 goals, -105 (BetMGM)
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