NBA Thursday: Greg Frank picks Heat vs Hawks and Spurs vs Clippers — with Kawhi Leonard returning, should you bet the over or under?

3-0 Wednesday, 7-1 this week, 9-4 overall.

Heat (-6.5) @ Hawks (215)

Pick: Under 215

Trae Young appears to have avoided serious injury, which is good news for Atlanta, but he won’t go in the back end of a home-and-home with Miami on Thursday night. With Young out for the second half on Tuesday, the two teams combined for 209 total points in a 112-97 victory for Miami. More than two possessions is a little steep to lay on the road, though Miami is the side I lean with in this one. I like the total much more in this one. Atlanta will have to muck up some games without its leading scorer and one would figure the Heat won’t score as many points on the road against Atlanta as they did at home on Tuesday. With Young playing about a half on Tuesday, the game was still a lock almost the whole way to go under the total of 223. Under money has come in here as the total has been bet down from the opening number of 216, and I’d say that’s money worth following.

Spurs (+4) @ Clippers (228)

Pick: Over 228

Kawhi Leonard returns to the lineup for the Clippers tonight after resting on Wednesday. Obviously, his presence will add more offense for Los Angeles after it failed to eclipse the century mark last night in Salt Lake City. The Jazz also ran away with that game down the stretch and the Clippers seemed to check out a little bit. They’ll certainly be fully engaged in this one as they return back to the Staples Center to take on the 3-0 Spurs. Having only played three games so far, San Antonio should certainly have plenty of wind behind its sails. The Spurs have scored at least 113 in all three of their games and with a couple of days off should have no problem playing a faster game tonight in LA. With Leonard rested for the Clippers, we’d expect him to do this thing for the home crowd and this to be a pretty entertaining nationally televised game with a lot of points.

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