NBA playoff chances, picks: Can pacers put the dollars away? Plus will play for Pistons vs. Knicks and more on Tuesday

The NBA playoffs will continue on Tuesday with a fully packed four-game board. First, the Pacers will try to put the goats away at 6 p.m. If you can, you will imagine the cavaliers in the second round. At 7:30 p.m., the Knicks will record the pistons 3-1 in this series with a berth of the second round on the line. The Celtics 3-1 on the magic will try to continue with a win at 8:30 p.m. to round off the night in a 2-2 series at 10 p.m.

Now that the 2025 off -season started, the basketball competition is hotter than ever before. CBS Sports will offer daily selection for the duration of the off -season. Sam Quinn will make at least one choice for every game between now and the game NBA Final.

Damian Lillard did not play in game 1 and won the Pacers at 19. He was injured in game 4 and the Pacers won 26. These teams are not even evenly unanimously agreed with full strength. Without Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo is simply the only money that can achieve advantages. Milwaukee cannot stay a little in front of Indiana in defense. I will be happy to take over this line and assume that the Pacers put this thing away at home in two digits. The selection: Pacers -7.5

The Knicks are preferred by 5.5 in this game, but is there a reason to feel good after four games? The Knicks won game 1 with a fluid 21-0 run. The pistons won game 2. The games 3 and 4 were decided with three combined points. The fact that the pistons have already won in Madison Square Garden indicates that they are not afraid of the light lights. This line is simply too high for what feels like a coin flip game. The selection: Pistons +5.5

The nice thing about points props are that they do not take into account for efficiency. Paolo Banchero leads all players this after season by making absurd 27.3 shots per game. Nobody would decide for it. As a reference, the career playoff record for All Iverson is 26.5. But Orlando simply has no one to shoot, so Banchero does so unencumbered. The points will appear on this volume, even if they don't get out of a good crime. The selection: Banchero over 29.5 points

The nuggets have built up their entire defense in this series to help the few dubious shooters that the Clipper have. Kris Dunn was the most remarkable example of this. According to NBA.com tracking data, he tried 19 3 in this series, 18 of them are wide open. This has played for an acceptable game in the past, but take a look at the way the Clippers almost came back from a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter: they put their shooters (Norman Powell and Bogdan Bogdanović) late on the floor, emphasized the offensive and defensively survived with a zone. You have lost the game, but this is an adaptation that we will surely see more. So if Dunn loses minutes against Bogdanović as an attack on the defense from Denver, it is in the opinion that he and therefore probably fewer 3s will seize and therefore make it likely. The selection: Dunn below 1.5 made 3 hands