The month of March is a fascinating time for the sport of basketball.
In the NCAA, you have the arrival of March Madness, the most bet-on sporting event of the year and the biggest stage of college sports, which through five days has already brought us exciting and iconic moments like Kentucky guard Otega Oweh’s epic 32-foot buzzer-beater in regulation of the Wildcats’ overtime victory over Santa Clara.
Meanwhile in the NBA, a third of the league is aggressively tanking and the rest of the league is focused on just getting to the postseason healthy, leading to anomalies like Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game and a random 11-game win streak for the Atlanta Hawks.
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First Pick: No. 1 Arizona -11.5 vs. No. 9 Utah State
Rundown: Unlike other No. 1 seeds like Duke and Michigan, there was no slow start to be found for the No. 1 Arizona Wildcats in their first round stomping of No. 16 Long Island University on Friday, March 20.
One of the premier favorites to be the last ones dancing this March, the Wildcats have shown to not overlook inferior opponents, making them a solid pick to cover over an Aggies team that simply does not have the horsepower to keep up with one of the best teams in the nation.
Against Long Island, the Wildcats needed just seven points from senior guard and Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley, demonstrating their depth.
Utah State likes to pound the interior, outscoring Villanova 42-26 in the paint in its first round matchup, but struggles against fast-paced offenses, making them a bad matchup for an Arizona team that is 18th in the nation in fast-break points per game.
Second Pick: Boston Celtics -10 vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves
Eric Lambkins II
Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart (36) defends Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) in the first half at crypto.com Arena.
Rundown: There’s not a hotter stock to buy in the NBA right now than the Boston Celtics. The return of star forward Jayson Tatum has skyrocketed the Celtics up to second in NBA Championship odds, and the news of Cade Cunningham’s collapsed lung injury has made it not unfathomable for Boston to catch the Detroit Pistons for the No. 1 seed over the course of the final 12 games of the season.
To do that, though, they will need to keep up the momentum of their recent four-game win streak, which they should be able to do decisively against a Timberwolves team missing star guard Anthony Edwards to injury.
Since Tatum’s return, the Celtics are 6-1 in games he’s played, with the only loss being to the San Antonio Spurs in a game where Jaylen Brown got ejected in the first half.
Speaking of Brown, the all-star guard is only heating up more late in his breakout season, scoring over 30 points in four of his last five outings.
The Timberwolves have actually been decently impressive playing without their lone all-star, going 8-5 without Edwards this season and posting a slightly higher offensive rating.
This is a wholly surprising stat considering Minnesota's lack of offensive creators around Edwards, but if anything were to reset that anomaly to its mean, it would be a date with Boston’s fearsome defense that ranks No. 4 in defensive rating this season.