NBA betting roundtable: Bold second-half predictions and bets to make - ESPN

Every team in the NBA has less than 30 games left on their regular-season schedule, but there is still enough time for much to change in the standings and in the awards races.

Here are betting experts André Snellings, Eric Moody, Eric Karabell, Jim McCormick, Tyler Fulghum and Steve Alexander with bold betting predictions and corresponding bets to make.

This bold outcome clearly rides heavily on the health of one Joel Embiid, but tea leaves suggest his recovery from knee surgery should allow a short regular season runway ahead of the Eastern Conference playoff gauntlet. The premise being that of all of Embiid's ill-timed playoff injuries, this one might actually position him to be healthy in time for the most meaningful minutes. This is also a different version of Embiid in that he's fully morphed into a Durant-like midrange scorer in crunch time, all while still claiming a free throw attempt rate higher than peak Shaq and the rim protection rates of an unquestioned elite defender. Combine this with more spacing and wings around him aligned with Tyrese Maxey's arrival as a co-star, and Nick Nurse has the requisite ingredients to shock the system.

This bold bet on a Broad Street parade affords 30-1 odds akin to currently betting Chet Holmgren as the DPOY. The payoff is positive enough to consider this outlier outcome worthy of our attention. The Sixers were winning games at a 65-win pace with Embiid at the helm, suggesting this is indeed a sleeping giant of sorts in a parity-driven NBA playoff field. It would require some magic for this to actually unfold, but we shouldn't dismiss the caliber of play the team and Embiid were sustaining before that fateful fall in San Francisco. — McCormick

The Warriors entered the