The NBA playoffs begin tonight as the Western Conference play-in games tip off the eight-week journey to crown a new champion this season. Tuesday’s schedule features the No. 8 Los Angeles Lakers traveling to take on the No. 7 New Orleans Pelicans while the late game is the No. 10 Golden State Warriors heading 90 miles north to face the No. 9 Sacramento Kings.
With two of the game’s biggest stars playing in a winner-takes-all playoff game, what can bettors expect from the NBA players participating in tonight’s action? We’ll cover that and more in our top four NBA player prop bets for Tuesday’s Play-In Playoff games.
New Orleans reached the No. 7 seed in this year’s standings, the highest ranking in the playoffs for the Pelicans since 2018. One reason the team has achieved its best season in six years is shooting guard C.J. McCollum. In his second full season with the team, McCollum’s leadership and talent have propelled the Pelicans to a 49-33 record.
This year, McCollum is hitting over 42.9% of his three-point field goals, the highest percentage of his career. The 11-year veteran hit 239 long-range shots this season, a career-best mark for the guard. Expect McCollum to hit at least four such shots tonight to successfully cover this player prop bet.
A month ago, Sacramento was comfortably in the Western Conference playoffs. But a 4-7 finish to the season doomed the Kings to a play-in game instead with a 46-36 record. Despite the disappointment, Sacramento’s bright spot this season is big man Damontas Sabonis and his career year in rebounds (13.7) and assists (8.2) to accompany his 19.4 points per game.
To beat Golden State, the Kings need Sabonis to make plays for himself and his teammates. This season, Sabonis is posting 9.5 assists per game against the Warriors. Look for the 6’ 10” forward to continue that stat line tonight to cover this player prop bet.
When the Los Angeles Lakers’ season is on the line, LeBron James comes up with monster games. This season has been no different. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer is averaging 28.3 points, 10.5 assists, and 7.2 rebounds since in April, showing that the 39-year-old still has plenty of gas left in his tank.
Against the Pelicans this season, James is averaging 28.3 points, 11.8 assists, and 6.8 rebounds. In only one of the four games these teams played did James not exceed 43 combined points, rebounds, and assists. Tonight, expect the multiple-time MVP to fill the stat sheet and easily eclipse this player combo prop bet against New Orleans.
The Splash Brothers are in unfamiliar territory. After dominating the Western Conference for nearly a decade, Golden State is the No. 10 seed with a 46-36 record this year. Part of that has been Klay Thompson’s worst season in more than a decade, falling off in almost every statistical category from last season’s numbers.
Although Thompson is averaging just 17.9 points this season, the shooting guard has hit a hot streak in April. The veteran is averaging 23.1 points in his past seven games, a spurt bettors can expect to continue Tuesday night despite Thompson averaging just 17.0 points per outing against the Kings this season.
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