Germantas Kneita
The first ever NBA in-season tournament concludes tonight as the Indiana Pacers take on the Los Angeles Lakers in Las Vegas. It has been a very entertaining tournament to this point, with teams feeling incentivized by the prize pot that is due to come the winners way. With a number of players on both teams on either rookie or minimum deals and looking to benefit from the prize, we should see both teams being fired up.
Check out my favorite first basket scorer prop for the game below.
First basket scorer: LeBron James (+550)
The Los Angeles Lakers will have a great chance of winning the opening tip tonight. Anthony Davis has helped them win 60.9% of their tip offs this season, slightly higher than the Indiana Pacers mark of 60%. The Lakers have used this to go on and make the first basket in 66.7% of games. Against a team that has had trouble defensively like the Pacers have had, they should be well positioned to improve on that tonight. The Pacers are 28th in the league in defensive rating.
LeBron James should be the man that takes the reigns to start. He has made thee first basket got the Lakers 3 times over the last 10 games. He has also taken the first field goal attempts in 24% of the games he has played. With the world watching, look for the all-time leading scorer to not pass the ball up. He is in fine form too, scoring at least 30 in 2 straight games. In his last outing against the Pelicans, he needed just 23 minutes to do it. I expect him to come out early and see if he still has the hot hand.
