Another winner on Thursday with the Raptors raised Stephen Nover's NBA hot streak to 27-11 on his last 38 premium/free plays for 71 percent! Profits keep rising as Stephen has found his NBA Game of the Week on the Friday menu. Stick with Stephen's expertise, strong information and sustained hot hand to win again!
Member Notes
Today’s Free Picks
| Sport | Game Selection | Game Time |
|---|---|---|
| NBA | (511) New Orleans Pelicans at (512) Boston Celtics | 7:40pm EDT - Apr 10/2026 |
The PLAY: New Orleans Pelicans +17.5 (-115)
The Celtics don't have to blow out the Pelicans to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. They don't even have to win if the Knicks were to lose to the Raptors today. All Boston has to do to get the second seed is beat either New Orleans or Orlando at home on Sunday. The Celtics also would get the No. 2 seed if the Knicks were to lose to Toronto, or Charlotte in its final regular season game.
This spot sets up well for New Orleans. The Pelicans last played three days ago when they piled up a season-high 156 points against the Jazz in a 19-point victory. New Orleans achieved that without using its starters. The youthful Pelicans are playing loose with a lot of energy and offense.
This is in direct contrast to the Celtics, who play at the league's slowest pace and will be without rest following a 112-106 road loss to the Knicks last night. Jayson Tatum logged nearly 40 minutes in that game. This also marks Boston's eighth game in 13 days.
The Celtics did not have Jaylen Brown, their leading scorer at 28.8 points, last night because of left Achilles tendinitis. He is questionable here. I'm sure Boston would like to hold out Brown until the playoffs.
Sure the Celtics are more than likely to win, but I would be surprised if it were by blowout fashion.
(Editor's note: Stephen Nover is 27-11 on his last 38 NBA premium/free plays and has his NBA Game of the Week today in addition to this free selection.)
Consultant Bio
Stephen Nover is unique among professional handicappers. A multiple award-winning sportswriter for numerous newspapers, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nover has one the best combinations of gambling and media sources in the world.
The author of two sports gambling books, "Las Vegas Sports Beat" and "Sports Gaming Beat", along with a book on fantasy football titled, "Winning Fantasy Football", Nover is a former professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas having taught a football handicapping class there. He also was the co-host of the Sunday night sports betting radio show "The Stardust Line" during the 1990's.
Parlaying nearly 50 years worth of professional gambling experience with tremendous knowledge of the players through elite deep-roster Rotisserie leagues and building on copious gaming and media sources - having worked for newspapers in the Midwest, South and West and also for legendary Hall of Fame oddsmaker Roxy Roxborough - Nover is a true Las Vegas wise guy. He helped learn his craft from such masters as Roxborough, Dave Malinsky, Lem Banker and Russ Culver.
Part of what makes Nover so special is the pride he takes in writing his deep-dive analysis, which always is unique, well-researched and sometimes entails out-of-the-box thinking.