Best NBA Player Prop Bets for New York Knicks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers - Game 5, April 26
What kind of performances can we expect on Friday from Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson, and Julius Randle? Follow along as our NBA betting expert, Nick Galaida, breaks down three of his favorite NBA prop bets for today — Wednesday, April 26, 2023. Get all of Nick’s picks, including more NBA player props, at ScoresandOdds.
This evening, the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers will play Game 5 of their opening round playoff series at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. New York enters action tonight with a 3-1 series lead and can clinch a trip to the second round with a win over Cleveland tonight. Ahead of tip-off, Quentin Grimes has been listed as questionable for the Knicks, but there are no other notable injuries to report for either team.
Despite being down 3-1 in the series, Cleveland is priced as 5.5-point favorites on the spread. The total is set at over/under 202.5 points.
We are 36-35-1 on player prop recommendations to begin the postseason. For those who would prefer to attack the player prop market rather than a side or total, we have three leans below for tonight’s action!
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NBA Player Props – Cavaliers vs. Knicks, April 26, 2023
- Donovan Mitchell o5.5 assists
- Jalen Brunson o1.5 three-pointers made
- Julius Randle less than 21.0 points
Donovan Mitchell o5.5 assists (+120), FanDuel
Donovan Mitchell has only eclipsed this market number twice in four games to begin this series, but both of those games were at home. In Game 1, Mitchell had eight actual assists on 13 potential assists. In Game 2, Mitchell had 13 assists in a game that Cleveland won handily. Though a sample of four games is not enough to make a definitive conclusion regarding home and away splits, there are a couple of reasons to believe that Mitchell will see his assists go back up tonight after two consecutive games going under this number. For one, role players typically play much better at home than they do on the road, meaning that more of Mitchell’s passes could realistically lead to made shots. The second reason is related to this phenomenon – during the regular season, Mitchell averaged 0.4 more actual assists per game at home than he did on the road. Returning to northeast Ohio for Game 5 with the season on the line, expect Mitchell to facilitate at a high level. Take the over here at plus money.
Jalen Brunson o1.5 three-pointers made (-155), DraftKings
Simply, “(player-popup #jalen-brunson)Jalen Brunson”:/players/jalen-brunson-409062’s volume alone in this series makes this a worthwhile risk. Though Brunson has been terribly inefficient from beyond the arc in these first four games, shooting only 28.0%, he is averaging 6.3 attempts from deep per game, which is more than enough volume for him to have a good chance to hit two shots from the perimeter on Thursday. During the regular season, Brunson hit multiple three-pointers in 58% of his games played, including 55% of his road contests. Combining this information with his recent surge in volume – the over on this prop has good value this evening.
NBA DFS Pick’em
Julius Randle less than 21.0 points, PrizePicks
Simply, Julius Randle has played his way off of the floor in this first round. Whether it is a result of him playing injured or otherwise, the simple observation is that Randle has not been his usual self and he has been far less effective than many of his teammates. In Game 4, head coach Tom Thibodeau benched Randle down the stretch, leading to Randle playing only 27 minutes total. In four games in this series, Randle is averaging only 14.8 points per game on 32.3% shooting from the field and 25.8% shooting from beyond the arc. It is difficult to envision him breaking out in Game 5.
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