Good afternoon sports fans, it’s Chris Bengel back with you.

Congratulations, we’ve made it. Welcome to March and welcome to the madness. The college basketball regular season is coming to a close with conference tournaments set to take place over the next two weeks. Once we’ve got that out of the way, it’s time for Selection Sunday and then the chaos to begins. Get ready to start filling out those brackets and placing those futures bets on who is going to win it all. This year is as big as a dart throw as I’ve seen in quite some time, so these next two weeks are going to be critical for research purposes.

Let’s get to today’s picks, which have a strong NBA flavor.

With LeBron James on the shelf, the Lakers are a lot less dangerous. That’s why I’m taking the Thunder at home with this small spread.

I get that it may be hard to trust a Thunder team that has dropped four consecutive games. However, all four of those were decided by single digits, and three of them coming against the Kings and Suns. While you may not know it by their 28-33 record, Oklahoma City is one of the most lethal scoring teams in the NBA. They average 117.8 points-per-game, which is third in the league behind only the Kings (120.7) and Celtics (118.4). Of note, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be out for OKC, but he also didn’t play in their last game against the Kings, and the Thunder kept it close.

The Lakers will be without Anthony Davis, in addition to James. Los Angeles really struggles on the defensive end, so not having Davis’ inside presence will be a huge issue for the Lakers. As it is, the Lakers are surrendering 117.9 points-per-game, which is sixth-most across the league. It’s safe to say that the Lakers are going to have to tough time slowing down the dynamic Thunder offense.

The Pick: Under 219 (-110) — Two of the Eastern Conference’s top four teams will be doing battle on Wednesday when the Celtics host the Cavaliers. You’d think that we’d be in store for a high-scoring affair. However…

The Cavaliers and Celtics are actually two of the better defensive teams in the all of the NBA. Cleveland owns the league’s top defense as they allow an NBA-low 106.5 points-per-game. The Cavaliers also are holding their opponents to just a 46.6 percent shooting clip and limit the opposition to the second-fewest rebounds (40.3) behind only the Nuggets.

The Celtics aren’t too far behind. Entering Wednesday, Boston is limiting its opponents to just 112 points-per-game, which is good for ninth in the NBA. The Celtics are also holding the opposition to 46.7 percent shooting from the field (ninth in the league) and 35.6 percent from three (11th in the league). In a battle between two elite teams, I’m expecting the defensive units to really clamp down and keep the under in play.

Key Trend: The under is 4-2 in the last six games between the Cavaliers and Celtics

Nets at Knicks, 7:30 p.m. | TV: NBA.TV
The Pick: Mikal Bridges Under 20.5 Points (-111) — The Nets are missing a lot of offensive productions now that Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant are gone. Since those trades, one of the team’s biggest offensive weapons has been Mikal Bridges, who was acquired from the Suns in the Durant deal. It may seem crazy, but I’m fading Bridges’ point prop in this spot. Here’s why:

Bridges has struggled mightily when facing the Knicks. In three games against New York this season, Bridges has averaged just 10 points-per-game and shot 40 percent from the field (12-of-30). He has netted no more than 13 points in any of those three contests. On Feb. 13, he recorded a 2-of-8 shooting performance and scored just seven points in a 124-106 Nets loss to the Knicks. I expect Bridges’ struggles to continue against the Knicks here.

Key Trend: Bridges has scored no more than 13 points in any of his three games against the Knicks this season