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The Toronto Raptors continue their homestand when they welcome the skidding Indiana Pacers to Scotiabank Arena this afternoon.

Scottie Barnes continues to pile up the points and rebounds, and I’ll explain why he’s due for another double-double in my Pacers vs. Raptors predictions and NBA picks below. 

Pacers vs Raptors prediction

Pacers vs Raptors best bet: Scottie Barnes to record a double-double (+130)

Scottie Barnes had a quiet game in Thursday’s win against the Bulls with just 13 points and six rebounds, but that was an outlier in what’s been a strong season for the Toronto Raptors forward.

Barnes has been a jack of all trades for the Raptors with 23 double-doubles this season — 11th most in the NBA and the fifth most among forwards.

The 24-year-old has claimed three double-doubles in his last six contests and should be able to add another to his total this afternoon vs. a struggling Indiana Pacers team.

Not only do the Pacers rank 24th in points allowed per game (118.4), but they’re also 27th in opponent rebounds per contest (46.9).

Barnes, who leads the Raptors with 8.3 rpg this year, will be even more integral on the glass with center Jakob Poeltl listed as questionable with a back issue. Look for him to dominate the Pacers on the scoreboard and on the glass.

Pacers vs Raptors same-game parlay

Brandon Ingram is fresh off a 33-point outing on Thursday and has gone Over 23.5 points in four of his last five contests. The Raps forward is poised for a big game vs. a weak Pacers defense.

Toronto is a big favorite this afternoon, and for good reason. The Pacers are in the midst of a three-game skid and lost by 14 points to the Raptors three weeks ago.

Pacers vs Raptors SGP

• Scottie Barnes to record a double-double
• Brandon Ingram Over 23.5 points
• Raptors moneyline

Our "from downtown" SGP: Barnes & Noble

If the Raps are going to win big today, they’ll need help from all around the lineup. Sandro Mamukelashvili has provided plenty of scoring off the bench, averaging 11.4 ppg this season while dropping Over 10.5 points in three straight and eight of his last 11. 

Pacers vs Raptors SGP

• Scottie Barnes to record a double-double
• Brandon Ingram Over 23.5 points
• Sandro Mamukelashvili Over 10.5 points
• Raptors -8.5

Pacers vs Raptors odds

• Spread: Pacers +8.5 | Raptors -8.5
• Moneyline: Pacers +270 | Raptors -340
• Over/Under: Over 225 | Under 225

Pacers vs Raptors betting trend to know

The Raptors are 7-3 ATS in the last 10 head-to-head meetings. Find more NBA betting trends for Pacers vs. Raptors.

How to watch Pacers vs Raptors

Pacers vs Raptors latest injuries

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here

In a far too early matinee, the Knicks (33*-19) face the Celtics (34-18) at TD Garden. This is a matchup of two Eastern Conference heavyweights, although the Knicks more resemble a boxer at the end of a fight—bloodied, swollen-eyed, with at least two sprained ankles.

On December 2, 2025, Boston defeated New York 123-117, with Jaylen Brown scoring 42 points for the Celtics and Mikal Bridges topping the Knicks with 35 points. Q: Was that the smudged jersey game? Answer below!

Boston holds the league’s second-best offensive rating at 121, the seventh-best defensive rating at 113.4, and scores 115.6 points per game. Brown averages 29.5 points per game and shoots 36% from deep. Derrick White averages 17.4 points per game and shoots 32% from downtown, while Payton Pritchard averages 17.3 points per game and shoots 37% from downstairs. Newly acquired veteran center Nikola Vucevic averages 11 points and grabs 12 rebounds per game.

Boston’s likely starting five is Sam Hauser (39% 3P), Luka Garza (46% 3P), Neemias Queta (8.4 RPG), Brown, and White. 

The good news for us is that this promises to be Jose Alvarado’s debut for the Knicks. Otherwise, yikes. New York lists Karl-Anthony Towns (eye laceration), Josh Hart (ankle), and OG Anunoby (toe) as questionable. And of course, Deuce McBride is out indefinitely due to hernia surgery. The villains list Sam Hauser as questionable due to a back problem. So they’ll be mostly full strength. Sigh.

ESPN gives New York a 42% chance to win. Fair ’nuff. This beat-up club was clobbered by Detroit on Friday, not even 48 hours ago. The Knicks must neutralize Brown and control the rebounds to pull off the road upset. With KAT and OG uncertain and Hart suffering, this early affair could be a toss-off on the road to a get-well All-Star break. A win would fill our sails with the certainty that even banged up, our boys can defeat one of our toughest conference rivals. A loss? Don’t sweat it too much.

A: Google tells me that the Jaylen SmudgeGame was played on October 24. During the third quarter, when Brown swiped his head across Anunoby’s midsection, a mysterious dark residue from Brown’s dome transferred to Anunoby’s kit. Shoe polish, we believe. Lest we forget a moment of Boston embarrassment!

Game Details

Date: Sunday, February 8, 2026
Time: 12:30 PM ET
Place: TD Garden, Boston, MA
TV: ABC / ESPN
Follow: @ptknicksblog and bsky

* Should be one more, but the Cup final doesn’t count.

The struggling Miami Heat try to shake a recent funk when they visit the capital city on Super Bowl Sunday to take on the Washington Wizards.

The Wiz are clearly happy to tank, but is Miami able to take that win? My Heat vs. Wizards predictions and NBA picks expect what the books expect: a comfortable Heat win.

Heat vs Wizards prediction

Heat vs Wizards best bet: Heat -11 (-110)

The Washington Wizards played last night and got ripped 127-113 by the Nets. They're just 3-5 against the spread playing on the second night of a back-to-back.

Defense continues to be a problem for the Wizards, who rank second-last in the NBA in points allowed at 122 per contest.

This roster is a little in shambles, too. Most notably, leading scorer Alex Sarr (ankle) and leading set-up man Kyshawn George (knee) missed yesterday's game and are a game-time decision. They are two of nine players who currently occupy the injured list, with seven sitting out against the Nets.

The Miami Heat are a cool 4-2 ATS as a road favorite, but leading scorer Norman Powell (hand) and Bam Adebayo (hip) are on the injured list and listed as game-time decisions.

The Heat are a Top-10 scoring defense, but they haven’t looked it lately. They’ve lost four of their last six, and have surrendered at least 125 points in three of those losses.

Miami has won four of the last five head-to-head matchups, and all of them have been blowouts, winning by 12+ points in each. The Wiz won the last game they played, though, surviving a 1-point win.

Normally, I’d lean on the home team and the points, but this Washington team feels like a compilation of promising talent that can’t be woven together by injured stars Anthony Davis and Trae Young.

Heat vs Wizards same-game parlay

The good news is that the books have Powell listed in the props, which means he must be close to returning. He’s coming off a 24-point game against New Orleans, and Powell has gone for 20+ in three straight games.

Alex Sarr will do damage for the Wiz against this struggling Miami defense that could be without Adebayo.

Heat vs Wizards SGP

• Heat -11
• Norman Powell Over 22.5 points
• Alex Sarr Over 16.5 points

Our "from downtown" SGP: Sarr strikes on Super Bowl Sunday!

Keyonte George has lost his jumper in February, shooting just 1-for-5 from 3-point range over three games. Miami isn’t the exact get-right team, as they’re sixth in the league in 3-point shooting defense.

Miami guard Davion Mitchell has had 7+ assists just four times in the last 11 games, and while he’s had 8+ assists in back-to-back games against the Wizards, that’s too small a sample size to put some money on.

Heat vs Wizards SGP

• Heat -11
• Norman Powell Over 22.5 points
• Alex Sarr Over 16.5 points
• Keyonte George Under 1.5 threes
• Davion Mitchell Under 6.5 assists

Heat vs Wizards odds

• Spread: Heat -11 | Wizards +11
• Moneyline: Heat -474 | Wizards +380
• Over/Under: Over 235.5 | Under 235.5

Heat vs Wizards betting trend to know

The Wizards have lost 40 of their last 41 games on the second night of a back-to-back. Find more NBA betting trends for Heat vs. Wizards.

How to watch Heat vs Wizards

Heat vs Wizards latest injuries

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here

Couldn’t he have just started a podcast? “The Internet is full of opinions. I decided it was time to make some of my own,” Giannis Antetokounmpo, one of the four best basketball players in the world, posted in a statement announcing that he was joining the prediction market Kalshi as a shareholder. “We all on Kalshi now.”

We are not, but doesn’t the tone sum it up? The universe’s ineffable forces have clearly decided that the ubiquity of sports betting companies is insufficient. There must be new companies, with which you can bet on any outcome – Kalshi competitor Polymarket has hosted markets tied to geopolitical outcomes, including scenarios related to Israel and Gaza, for instance – that incentivize people to treat life’s most important avenues as trivially as a sports game. Kalshi and Polymarket are prediction platforms rather than traditional betting companies. Users effectively bet (or “trade”) against others on the platform about the outcome of events, from familiar wagers such as the result of a sporting event, to the obscure, such as the color of a politician’s suit at an election appearance. Kalshi has enjoyed plenty of freedom under the second Donald Trump administration, and Donald Trump Jr is a “strategic advisor” for them and Polymarket. A Kalshi outcome taking bets until recently was “Giannis Antetokounmpo’s next team?” as rumors swirled that the two-time NBA MVP was about to leave the Milwaukee Bucks. Antetokounmpo will be involved in marketing and publicity for Kalshi, and is forbidden from trading on markets related to the NBA. The move is also in step with the NBA’s rules – players are allowed to endorse betting companies as long as they don’t gamble on the league itself. But that hasn’t prevented scores of fans across Instagram and Reddit, and media members on Twitter, from expressing their displeasure at the move and insisting there is a conflict of interest.

Related: The NBA jumped into bed with gambling. Now the league is getting its due

Antetokounmpo seems to be fine with the deal though, and would have you know that jumping in bed with Kalshi is no more complicated than holding some opinions. For Antetokounmpo, a multimillionaire inking a deal with thiscompany, whose CEO recently said, “the long-term vision is to financialize everything and create a trading asset out of any difference of opinion,” rather than just about any other company, is apparently no big deal. Nor is the fact that a significant part of Kalshi’s trades are on sports outcomes, and Antetokounmpo is a professional athlete. “We all on Kalshi now.” We are apparently also all in hell.

Antetokounmpo has done a fine job ruining what had been a stellar approval rating. He spurred the Milwaukee Bucks to the NBA title in 2021, emerging as a new face of the league. The next year, the Bucks made a respectable run at a title defense by losing to the Boston Celtics in the conference semi-finals in seven games. Game 7 was an unfortunate blowout, but Antetokounmpo put up more staggering numbers across the series. The Bucks were in a good place.

Since, though, they can’t stop exiting the playoffs in the first round. The Bucks are 21-29 so far this season; they’ll be lucky to even make the playoffs. Antetokounmpo has played some brilliant basketball but also suffered two non-contact calf injuries, keeping him out of games and making him the latest NBA star on Achilles Watch. Giannis is 31, and barring LeBron James-esque longevity, closer to the end of his career than the beginning. It is obvious to everybody that any winning he does from here on out will have to come on a team besides the Bucks.

The past several weeks have seen Antetokounmpo waffle between acknowledging this, which in conjunction with his agent shopping him around to other teams suggested he was on his way out, and acting insulted at the idea that he would leave. It was all very confusing and suggested that Antetokounmpo knew he had to go but didn’t want to be the bad guy.

The uncertainty behind Antetokounmpo’s future was almost certainly down to legitimate basketball reasons: teams’ willingness to trade or how much the Bucks wanted to keep their superstar. And, in any case, Antetokounmpo is forbidden from trading on the NBA with Kalshi. But perception trumps reality among NBA fans. And now it is impossible for many of them to reflect on Antetokounmpo’s future without his Kalshi stock front of mind. Every time Giannis turns in a performance, or even a play, that deviates from expectations, it may raise suspicion over whether he was trying to move Kalshi’s prediction lines. Or others could speculate he whipped up rumors of a trade so that gamblers would flock to Kelshi to bet on his future.

But perhaps what’s perhaps most depressing is that Antetokounmpo isn’t a remarkable case here. This news comes at a time when James is a DraftKings ambassador and Kevin Durant cashes checks from FanDuel. When watching a big game, regardless of league, odds are you won’t be able to avoid a deluge of over-under lines and parlays from commentators and social media accounts. Prior to joining ESPN, the NBA’s foremost news-breaker Shams Charania unintentionally moved a betting line with a misleading tweet while co-hosting a show for FanDuel. Many NBA-focused outlets – notably The Ringer and its large fleet of podcasts – are sponsored by a betting company, which could create a conflict of interest even in the coverage of gambling scandals. League commissioner Adam Silver has given tepid quotes in favor of more regulation but has largely welcomed sports gambling since arguing for its legalization in the New York Times in 2014. Then there are even more serious incidents. At the start of the season, the Miami Heat’s Terry Rozier was arrested for allegedly using inside information about NBA players to manipulate prop bets.The NBA is infested with betting companies and ripe for yet another scandal.

Wagering away your life savings has never been easier: just reach into your back pocket, open a fiercely addictive app striving for your attention, and click away. But gambling has become so ubiquitous that we decided somewhere along the way that this problem doesn’t matter, or is better ignored. The secondary problem with rampantly available gambling is the incentivization of rigging outcomes, and the constant suspicion even in absence of a scandal. Sports are meaningful enough to define the lives of players and fans alike, but all that love and time rests on the strength of the idea that what we are watching is real. It’s never been so easy to lose the faith, and Antetokounmpo’s latest deal has only made the whole mess worse.

The Suns welcomed the Philadelphia 76ers to the Mortgage Matchup Center on Saturday night, and the building buzzed for one reason. Devin Booker was back. Jalen Green was back. The cavalry had arrived.

What they did not bring with them was a shooting touch.

Phoenix opened the night by going 1-of-13 from deep in the first quarter and never really escaped the fog. By the end of it, they were 11-of-46 from beyond the arc. Brutal. So brutal it started to seep into their decision-making. For stretches in the second, the open looks were there. Clean looks. Rhythm shots. And instead of letting them fly, the Suns pump-faked themselves right out of confidence. Dribble. Reset. Force something worse.

That is the part that sticks with you. The offense was doing its job. The ball moved. The actions worked. The looks were real. Execution from three never showed up.

When the dust settled, both teams finished with 11 made threes. The difference was how they got there. The Suns needed 17 more attempts to reach the same number. That math catches up with you every time.

And yet, weirdly enough, this still felt like a step forward.

That sounds insane after a loss, but context matters. Getting Booker and Green back before the All-Star break matters. Roles have been stretched thin for weeks. Guys have been asked to do more than they are built for. That does not reset overnight.

It is still a work in progress. Green is coming off the bench. That will change. Booker is finding his legs again. That will come. The rotation has not fully settled yet, and that part is important.

Losing at home never feels good. But this is part of a larger process playing out in real time. Sometimes progress looks clean. Sometimes it looks clunky and uncomfortable and frustrating as hell. You do not have to like it. But you do have to respect it.

Bright Side Baller Season Standings

Grayson gets the nod against the Warriors, and he was a casualty of that game. He gave it his all, tweaked his knee, and is once again sidelined. At least he has his 7th BSB to keep him company.

Bright Side Baller Nominees

Game 53 against the Sixers. Here are your nominees:

Dillon Brooks
28 points (11-of-23, 2-of-10 3PT), 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 4 fouls, +10 +/-

Devin Booker
21 points (5-of-12, 1-of-7 3PT), 2 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 turnovers, +10 +/-

Royce O’Neale
14 points (5-of-10, 4-of-9 3PT), 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 3 turnovers, +6 +/-

Mark Williams
11 points (4-of-7), 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 3 fouls, +0 +/-

Jalen Green
8 points (2-of-6, 0-of-3 3PT), 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover, +7 +/-

Jordan Goodwin
7 points (2-of-7, 1-of-4 3PT), 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 4 fouls, -6 +/-

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Who was your star of Saturday night?

Per a Spurs press release:

The San Antonio Spurs announced that the organization will return to Paris, France this month to host “Spurs Week Paris,” a special weeklong activation across the city that brings key elements of their fan experience directly to their French supporters. From Thursday, Feb. 26 through Sunday, March 1, Spurs Week Paris will consist of community impact programming, exclusive retail and fan engagement opportunities and more activations designed to enhance the cross-cultural exchange between Texas and France, as part of the organization’s long-term commitment to growing the game of basketball globally.

The weeks events include:

Thurs. Feb. 26-Sun. March 1
Exclusive Pop-Up Shop
The limited time “Les Spurs Pop Up Fan Shop” in the 1^st arrondisement will feature an exclusive Spurs “Bexar Goods x Paris” retail line designed to introduce French fans to the South Texan style and materials through the lens of the team’s private label “Bexar Goods.” Classic Spurs team merchandise such as jerseys and hats will be available as well. Store hours are as follows: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. CET daily, closing early at 2 p.m. CET on Sunday, March 1.
 
Thurs., Feb. 26
Spurs Basketball Clinics in Le Chesnay, presented by Ledger
The organization will return to the court they renovated in Victor Wembanyama’s hometown of Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt with the 2025 launch of the Play Paris initiative. Spurs Sports Academy coaches will lead skills clinics, open to athletes ages 8-16 years old, with sign-ups open now at SpursSportsAcademy.com/Paris.
 
Sat., Feb. 28
Play Paris Court Design Unveiling, presented by Ledger
In partnership with Ledger, the Spurs will surprise the community of Nanterre with the announcement of a renovated court. This court will be the second in the Spurs Play Paris program, which was built to inspire the next generation and create a lasting legacy in the community. The announcement will be followed by a Spurs skills challenge, which is open to local youth athletes with sign-ups open now at SpursSportsAcademy.com/Paris.
 
Sun., March 1
Official Spurs Watch Party, presented by Ledger
The Spurs and Ledger will host a free watch party, open to the public with required RSVP while supplies last, to cheer the team on as they face the Knicks in New York. The party will feature all the classic Spurs game day elements like Coyote, giveaways and more. To RSVP in order to receive official event invitation, visit Spurs.com/Paris.
 

RC Buford, CEO of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, stated,

“Spurs Week Paris was thoughtfully designed with French Spurs fans in mind, building upon the decades-long relationships the team has established in France and throughout Europe. Our longstanding international history has given us the privilege of connecting with fans worldwide and we’re honored to be embraced and welcomed by communities across the globe.”

Spurs Week Paris is a continuation of the Spurs commitment to making basketball a global game and connecting with fans across the world.

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