{"id":612705,"date":"2026-02-20T01:48:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/612705\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:48:22","slug":"nba-thursday-picks-odds-bets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/612705\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Thursday picks, odds, bets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\tGambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our links. Read our <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/betting-editorial-standards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">editorial standards<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/betting\/nba-betting-sites\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBA<\/a> is back after an eventful All-Star break in Southern California.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Nuggets head to Los Angeles to take on the Clippers to kick off the second-half of the season in a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/05\/03\/sports\/nuggets-destroy-clippers-in-game-7-to-set-up-showdown-vs-thunder\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rematch of last spring\u2019s first round battle<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Clippers are a very different team than the last time these two teams faced off, but Kawhi Leonard is playing some of the best basketball of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Leonard is averaging a career-high 27.9 points per game on 49.1 percent shooting overall and 38.3 percent from deep in just 32.8 minutes per game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since the trade deadline, when the Clippers shipped James Harden to Cleveland and Ivica Zubac to Indiana, the ball has been in Leonard\u2019s hands a ton.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In four games since then, Leonard is averaging 22 shots per game, which is tied for the third-most in the league over that stretch.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38531136\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2260582788.jpg\" alt=\"Kawhi Leonard #2 of the Los Angeles Clippers goes to the basket against Jaden McDaniels #3 of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second quarter at Target Center on February 08, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. \" class=\"wp-image-38531136\"  \/>Kawhi Leonard #2 of the Los Angeles Clippers goes to the basket against Jaden McDaniels #3 of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second quarter at Target Center on February 08, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>His scoring has followed, averaging 30.8 per game, which is also the third-most among all players over that small sample size.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Denver will be without two of their top wing defenders, Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson, who are among the few players on their roster who can deal with a player of Leonard\u2019s size and athleticism.<\/p>\n<p>Betting on the NBA? <\/p>\n<p>The Clippers\u2019 return for Harden, young point guard Darius Garland, still isn\u2019t ready to return to the court with a toe injury, leaving a massive void behind Leonard.<\/p>\n<p>With little scoring competition beside him, look for Leonard to have another big night on Thursday as the 2025-26 stretch run gets going.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The play: Kawhi Leonard to score more than 27.5 points (-110, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/article\/fanduel-sign-up-offer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FanDuel Sportsbook<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Why Trust New York Post Betting<\/p>\n<p>Dylan Svoboda is a versatile writer and analyst across many sports. He\u2019s particularly knowledgeable about the big three \u2014 MLB, the NFL and the NBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,212,301,187,3943,135,6,214,302,66,215,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-612705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-betting","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-nuggets","12":"tag-denvernuggets","13":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-betting","16":"tag-nuggets","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-sports-betting","19":"tag-sports-picks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116100447424718841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}