Wise n' Shine: NBA picks, MLB predictions and NHL best bets for Thursday

Good morning, Pickswise Nation and welcome to another terrific day of sports. We have playoff action in the NBA again tonight, plus a fun MLB slate and the start of the NHL conference finals, so let’s get straight to making your next bet better!

About Last Night

Heat pull off upset
The Miami Heat have already surpassed expectations this postseason, and that continued on Wednesday with a Game 1 win in Boston over the heavily favored Celtics. Our NBA experts stayed hot as we cashed the Heat +8, Over 210.5 and both of our player prop bets. The Celtics are now -220 favorites in the series and currently sit as 9-point favorites in Game 2.

MLB YRFI/NRFI best bets stay hot
The Pickswise MLB experts kept on rolling with our YRFI/NRFI picks on Wednesday, cashing both plays to improve to 24-8 over the last 16 days in this market. We’ve got 2 more YRFI/NRFI best bets for Thursday’s action, so make sure to follow along as we keep the momentum going!

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Today’s Slate

Game 2 between Lakers and Nuggets
After an exciting Game 1 on Tuesday, the Lakers visit the Nuggets for Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals at 8:30 pm ET on ESPN, with the Nuggets now having -260 odds at DraftKings to reach the NBA Finals and Los Angeles having +220 odds. You can read our NBA predictions for the game.

Back on the ice in Carolina
After an extended break, the NHL Eastern Conference Finals will get underway on Thursday from Carolina as the Hurricanes will host the Florida Panthers in Game 1. Carolina is favored to make its first Stanley Cup Finals since 2006, and you can read our NHL picks for that Game.

MLB slate gets started early
We’ve got a smaller sampling of MLB games today, including some afternoon action that starts with Angels vs Orioles at 12:35 pm ET, plus Rays vs Mets at 1:10 pm ET. Check out all of today’s MLB picks.

Best Bet of the Day

NHL: Carolina Hurricanes ML (-145) over Florida Panthers
8:00 pm ET, TNT

Frederik Andersen is 5-0-0 in the playoffs with a 1.80 GAA and a .931 SV%. Carolina is good at playing defense and limiting shots, but even when the opposing team has a chance to score, they can’t get much past Andersen. In their last series, New Jersey had some very talented players, but they couldn’t generate any sustained pressure in the offensive zone. Florida may be the surprise of the playoffs and deserves a ton of credit to this point, but the Panthers are going up against a great penalty kill and a team with the 2nd-best goals against per game record. Carolina is getting a decent amount of offense from all 4 lines, which makes it hard for opposing teams to shut down any one line or player. Sergei Bobrovsky has been elite to this point, but he could falter at any time. Read our full Panthers vs Hurricanes predictions

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Must-read

Start the day with today’s MLB coverage, including our red-hot YRFI/NRFI best bets. In addition, our expert golf analyst Diane Knox Balas has golf predictions for the PGA Championship, as well as PGA Championship prop bets, and First Round Leader best bets. We also have our Lakers vs Nuggets Same Game Parlay posted at +616 odds.

Head over to the Analysis tab for even more great sports betting content as it arrives throughout the day.

Stat of the Day

The Heat are now a league-best 9-3 against the spread in the NBA playoffs this season. Miami covered the 8-point spread in its Game 1 victory over the Boston Celtics.

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Pickswise is the home of free sports picks, news, and best bets. Check out our expert NBA picks, MLB picks, NHL picks and Soccer picks for the latest game picks.