PICKS & PARLAYS

The Los Angeles Lakers (34-24) enter Saturday night as 3.5-point road favorites at Chase Center against the Golden State Warriors (31-28), tipping off at 8:30 PM ET with Luka Doncic and LeBron James healthy and desperate to snap a three-game losing streak against a Golden State roster missing Stephen Curry for the 11th consecutive game, Jimmy Butler for the rest of the season, Seth Curry, and likely Kristaps Porzingis, leaving the Warriors to piece it together through Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, and De'Anthony Melton in a primetime ABC showdown that doubles as a Pacific Division seeding battle with real playoff implications for both clubs.

The New Orleans Pelicans (18-42) make the short trip back to Delta Center on Saturday, February 28 for a rematch against the Utah Jazz (18-41), tipping off at 9:30 PM ET, with Lauri Markkanen confirmed out after a practice injury and Keyonte George questionable with an ankle issue that has already cost him six straight games, while Dejounte Murray sits this one out for New Orleans after playing Thursday for the first time since January 2025, as two of the Western Conference's worst teams run it back 48 hours after the Pelicans won 129-118 in this exact building, with the market opening New Orleans as a 6.5 to 7-point road favorite and a total of 245 that sits 12 points above what these rosters actually average together on a given night.

The Brooklyn Nets, 15-43 and locked in lottery mode, travel to TD Garden to face the Boston Celtics on Friday, February 27, tipping off at 7:30 PM ET. With Brooklyn grinding into Boston on the second night of a back-to-back after a 16-point blowout loss to San Antonio on Thursday, and Jayson Tatum (right Achilles) remaining out for the Celtics while Jaylen Brown returns fully healthy from a minor knee contusion, this matchup pits a 38-20 Eastern Conference contender hungry for a bounce-back performance at home against a six-game losing streak Nets squad playing on depleted legs with nothing to lose, as both franchises sit at opposite ends of the standings with Boston chasing the East's top seed and Brooklyn firmly in tank territory, and the Celtics' 12-7 ATS record off losses on the line in what could be one of the most lopsided spreads of the night at 17.5 points.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, fourth in the Eastern Conference at 37-23, travel to face the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena on Friday, February 27, tipping off at 7:00 PM ET. With Donovan Mitchell ruled out with a groin strain and James Harden, Dennis Schröder, Keon Ellis, and Dean Wade all listed as questionable heading into tip-off, Cleveland arrives in Detroit running one of the most depleted backcourts of the season against the East's top seed, who enters fully healthy outside of a suspended Isaiah Stewart and riding an 8-2 stretch that has Cade Cunningham drawing MVP chatter, as both franchises sit atop the Central Division but separated by 6.5 games in the standings, with Detroit's 22-7 home record and Jalen Duren's three straight double-doubles powering a Pistons squad that opened as 7.5-point favorites before sharp money moved the line back to 6.5 in a game where the spread tells a more complicated story than the injury report suggests.

The Denver Nuggets (37-22), fourth in the Western Conference, travel to Paycom Center to face the Oklahoma City Thunder (45-15) on Friday, February 27, tipping off at 9:30 PM ET, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander confirmed back after a nine-game absence and Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Alex Caruso all cleared from the injury report, while Denver arrives missing Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson with Jamal Murray listed as questionable due to illness, and this matchup puts the league's top offense against a suddenly-healthy Thunder squad riding its first-place perch atop the West with the San Antonio Spurs just 1.5 games back. OKC opened as an 8.5-point home favorite, and the return of SGA explains the number, but a team that is 4-9 against the spread when favored by at least that much laying it to a Nikola Jokic team that is 4-0 ATS as dogs of this size is one of the sneakiest value spots on the Friday slate.