After a five-game Thursday, the NBA is back in full swing Friday with a massive 11-game schedule.

The dealmaking was in full swing ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline, and plenty of players change teams.

Remember, this is not like it happens in a videogame. Players need to clean out lockers, take care of personal things, catch flights to new cities, get physicals, get virus testing, and do it all in the span of 24 hours to be able to play.

Gambling: A close look at two Thursday NHL games, with other side bets

Very few traded players make it into their new lineups less than a day later, which creates some strange rotations and short benches for teams that made trades.

Let’s take a look at some of the key games to bet on for Friday.

Denver Nuggets at New Orleans Pelicans

What a bettor should concentrate on instead is picking winners. One of those winners should be the hometown Nuggets.

Gambling: Denver Nuggets get betting nod vs. Toronto Raptors on Wednesday

Neither Denver nor, the Pelicans, have been good for bettors this season. Both teams are winning just 46% of their games against the spread, but Denver is a far superior team in many ways.

The Nuggets have more wins overall, but they also project for more wins going forward. The metrics back this up.

Both teams have very efficient offenses, but the Nuggets are slightly better. They average the fourth-most points per 100 possessions of any team in the league. The Pelicans are not bad either (seventh), meaning this game should feature a lot of offense.

These two teams average exactly the same 115.6 points per game. Yes, Denver is more efficient on offense, but they also play slightly slower than New Orleans.

What the Pelicans lose in efficiency, they make up for with a few extra possessions. This actually benefits Denver more than New Orleans as well.

The faster New Orleans pace should mean a few more possessions for the higher efficiency Denver offense.

The slower Denver pace on the other hand hurts the Pelicans as it should lead to a couple fewer possessions. The cherry on top is the bad defenses on both sides of this game. Even there, the Nuggets have an edge. They are by no means good, giving up the 20th most points per 100 possessions. The Pelicans though are even worse at 28th giving up 117.

All these tiny advantages add up for the Nuggets. The Nuggets and the over are two bets with some value in this game.

Portland Trail Blazers at Orlando Magic

The second game where we see some value is Portland visiting Orlando.

Gambling: Panthers, Lightning worth a Tuesday wager

Orlando was in sell mode Thursday, sending away Nikola Vucevic, Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon. Trading three of your top scorers on the same day is not going to leave you with much ammunition for the next battle.

That’s the situation the Magic find themselves in here and every day moving forward. The breaking trade news caused most books to take this game off the board, but any number you can find below -11 should be hammered repeatedly.

At FTN Bets we project this game to favor the Trailblazers by 13.5 based on probable rotations for the Magic, so anything at -12 or less is playable.

The moneyline should be a lock, but who wants to lay -1000 and win ten cents on the dollar for your risk? Take the points as this game is destined to get away from the shorthanded and under-talented Magic.