5 Expert Picks
Orlando has won two out of three matchups over the Knicks this season. …
Is the NBA Cup tailor-made for this version of the Knicks? ...
The scorelines have been reducing in recent Orlando games...
This Stephon Castle prop has hit in 13 of 14 full games this season. …
Wemby likely to return tonight--but will that help vs. Thunder? ...
I'm gonna take a shot here. Again, the NBA lines are so backward right now that I want to take any reasonable ones. Anthony Edwards is iffy for Minny. If he sits, then I believe this for sure cashes. It may anyways with Steph Curry back for the Dubs, although Draymond Green being out is not ideal. I always enjoy seeing him and Rudy Gobert just ready to rumble. I don't know why but rumble has been in my vocab of late. Half-unit that certainly goes to full if Ant out. But obviously we won't get -120.
DraftKings. This line is too low for Brandon Williams, even in his role off the bench. Williams is averaging 14.9 combined points plus assists in just 21.6 minutes per game. Even off the bench, he should still see 20-24 minutes tonight, especially as D’Angelo Russell is out. Great matchup too.
Any NBA "go-with" list at the moment likely includes the Mavs, with wins in four of five as Jason Kidd has started to push the right buttons. Getting Anthony Davis back and in a healthy state has been one of the positives; AD is just off of a smashing 29-point effort in last Saturday's comfy win over the powerful Rockets. AD had scored 32 earlier in December in a win over the Nuggets Meanwhile, 6-9 Duke rookie Cooper Flagg has picked up the pace this month and is scoring better than 20 ppg in December. Granted, Brooklyn is not as much of a pushover these days and has won three of four, but a favorable recently slate has helped the results. Play Mavs
The correlation is too strong...Memphis has surged since a Morant went down with his calf injury. The Griz have won seven of nine, all minus Morant, its best surge of the season, with terrific balance reflected in five different leading scorers across the past five games. Emerging recently has been Washington State rookie wing Cedric Coward, who scored 23 in last Friday's win over the Clippers. Another reason Morant and his distracting presence haven't been missed is that his numbers had tailed off dramatically before the injury' his 35.9% FG shooting is well the worst for any season of his career in which he's been near 47% from the floor. Meanwhile, the Jazz are slumping again with two 30+-point losses in a row. Play Grizzlies
For the Atlanta Hawks no player has more attention than Jalen Johnson. Johnson is averaging 30 points and 14 rebounds over his last five games. This included a 29 and 13 performance against the Pistons on December 1st. Look for Detroit to center their game plan on limiting Johnson, and for Okongwu to take advantage. Okongwu has averaged 21 points in the two matchups against the Pistons, this included scoring 20 of their 98 points in the December matchup. Take Okongwu over.
Hornets rookie Sion James should see decent minutes Friday against a Bulls team that plays at the second-fastest pace. With LaMelo Ball, Collin Sexton and others out for Charlotte, I bet James to score at least seven points. On Nov. 28 vs. Chicago, James scored nine points in 20 minutes.
DraftKings. This should be a nice spot for Coby White, who has cleared this line in five of seven games. The Bulls will be without both Ayo Donsunmu and Kevin Huerter in the backcourt, which should bump White’s usage even more. The Hornets struggle defensively on the perimeter, and White should benefit both as a pick and roll imitator, and on the fastbreak.
DraftKings. Back to the Jaylon Tyson well we go. The sophomore has cleared this line in eleven of fourteen games when playing at least 24 minutes, and 8/9 without Jarrett Allen. With Allen and Sam Merrill remaining out, Tyson should continue to see a strong minutes floor tonight. It’s a soft matchup against the Wizards (for everyone on the Cavaliers), and one that should be played at a breakneck pace, with both teams in the top ten of tempo.
Kon Knueppel is averaging 5.5 rebounds per game for the season. He should play a lot Friday with LaMelo Ball, Collin Sexton and Tre Mann all out. Ball has missed eight games this season and Knueppel recorded at least five rebounds in six of them. The two times that he didn’t, he had four rebounds each against two good rebounding teams in the Nuggets and Thunder. The same can’t be said for the Bulls, who have allowed the sixth-most rebounds per game in the league. When he played the Bulls a couple of weeks ago, he finished with five rebounds over 32 minutes. Despite the juice, I like this over.
Jarrett Allen (finger) and Sam Merrill (hand) will remain out for the Cavaliers. Jaylon Tyson has started each of the last eight games that they have missed. In that role, he combined for at least 21 points and rebounds seven times. Helping his cause was that he logged at least 31 minutes in six of those games. The Wizards have the worst defensive rating and have given up the most rebounds per game in the league, which puts Tyson in a favorable spot to remain productive.