Filip Tomic
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Sunday’s NBA schedule tips off early as LeBron James takes on his former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Three other games are being played later in the day, I’ve gone through them and came up with some NBA player prop bets worth considering today.
As always, we’ve covered all 4 matchups with picks on the side and total, so don’t forget to check out our NBA predictions. Let’s look at some of my favorite player prop bets for Sunday.
LeBron James to record 8+ assists (+118)
LeBron James’s shooting has been down for the last couple of games, but his assist numbers have been consistent in the 8 games he’s played so far. Rumor has it he’s been dealing with an illness over the past couple of games, which wouldn’t surprise me as he’s missed all 12 threes taken in the last 2 games while shooting just 38% from the field. He’s still getting his teammates involved though, in the 3 games against Denver, New Orleans and Utah he had 8 assists and over the course of the season he’s got to 8 in 6 of 8 games played.
LeBron has played 18 games against his former team in his career and is averaging 7.1 assists per game. If we look at the 4 most recent meetings he’s averaging 8.5 per game while dishing out 8 or more in 3 of those games. The Lakers like to push the tempo, they are among the fastest team in the league right now, averaging 105.2 possessions per game which ranks them 3rd in the NBA. With the way Matt Ryan, Lonnie Walker Jr. and Russell Westbrook have been playing lately, there should be plenty of opportunities for LeBron to get his teammates involved.
Steven Adams over 9.5 rebounds (-148)
The only thing I can think of that could keep Steven Adams from reaching 10 rebounds in tonight’s game is if he forgets to show up to the arena in time. He’s been very active on the boards for Memphis over the last 6 games going into double digits in 5 of them. He’s coming off a season-high 19 rebounds in the blowout win over Charlotte on Friday and it took him just 22 minutes to get there. Tonight he matches up with Kristaps Porzingis down low and the Latvian is no match for him physically, so it shouldn’t take him long to get to 10 rebounds. Against the Wizards he’s got to 10 rebounds in 4 of the last 5 meetings. The last time he played them in January he had 15 in just 29 minutes of play. Memphis currently ranks 3rd in the NBA in team rebounds per game averaging 57.6 a night and Adams is the biggest reason they are this good. Expect him to deliver tonight.
Ja Morant to score 30+ points (+132)
Ja Morant has cooled off a bit scoring-wise lately, but only because Desmond Bane and Dillon Brooks have had it going in the last 2 wins over Portland and Charlotte. If he wants to challenge for the MVP award this season, Ja will have to produce bigger stat lines on a more consistent basis and the defensively challenge Washington Wizards are the perfect team for him to get back on track. In his last game against them he poured in 34 points and he also made 4 threes on 8 attempts, which is not something you see him do often. There’s a good reason for that happening though, the Wizards’ perimeter defense has been a disaster over the first 8 games of the season. Right now they are dead last in the NBA allowing opponents to shoot 41.3% from downtown and 43% on the road. They also allow the 5th-highest number of threes per game at 13.8 a night, so I’m expecting Morant to take full advantage of this. The fact that Bradley Beal will not play means that he won’t have to spend as much energy on the defensive end, I think Ja goes for an easy 30 points tonight.
Sunday’s NBA mega parlay has +840 odds!
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