NBA Player Props for Tuesday, 12/30: Best Bets & Predictions Today
What kind of performances can we expect from Joel Embiid, Jalen Duren, and Jake LaRavia? Follow along as our NBA betting analyst, Nick Galaida, breaks down three of his favorite NBA prop bets for Tuesday, December 30th. Get all of Nick’s picks, including more NBA plays, by subscribing to the RotoGrinders Props & Pick’em package.
Tuesday’s NBA slate features 4 games, including a doubleheader on Peacock beginning at 8:00 pm ET with the 76ers against the Grizzlies, followed by the Pistons against the Lakers. LeBron James will be celebrating his 41st birthday this evening as part of the festivities.
The biggest name on the NBA injury report as of this writing is Joel Embiid, who is officially questionable as of this writing. There are other stars, such as Austin Reaves, Zach LaVine, and Domantas Sabonis, who are nursing longer-term injuries and will be unavailable tonight.
As always, be sure to use tools like CourtIQ and our NBA starting lineups page to evaluate how injuries impact usage and to search for inefficiencies in the player prop and DFS markets.
Below, you can find 3 of my favorite picks for Tuesday, December 30th!
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Best NBA Player Props for Tuesday, December 30th
Here are my top player prop bets for today, with tip-off scheduled for 8:00 PM ET on Tuesday, December 30th:
- Joel Embiid Over/Under 3.5 Assists
- Jalen Duren Over/Under 16.5 Points
- Jake LaRavia Over/Under 9.5 Points
Joel Embiid UNDER 3.5 Assists (-118, FanDuel)
Embiid is officially questionable for this evening’s tilt, but if he plays, there could be value on the under for his assists prop. He’s gone under this number in 8 of his last 10 games and 4 of his 5 road games this year.
In his last 10 games, Embiid is averaging only 2.5 assists and 5.3 potential assists. In his 5 road games, he’s averaging only 2.2 assists and 5.6 potential assists.
This isn’t a particularly great matchup for assists either, further increasing the likelihood that Embiid finishes with 3 or fewer assists on Tuesday.
Jalen Duren OVER 16.5 Points (-111, DraftKings)
Duren has been playing excellent basketball this season, averaging 18.2 points per game. His per-game scoring has taken a little bit of a hit in December, but that’s mostly a consequence of an 8-point effort on December 3 and scoring only 6 points on December 15. Overall, Duren has eclipsed this number in 5 of his last 6 contests.
Tonight, he gets to face a Lakers defense that has allowed the 3rd-highest field goal% in the restricted area this month, which is where Duren attempts roughly 70% of his shots. This is a good matchup for him to continue making an impact on the offensive end of the floor.
Jake LaRavia OVER 9.5 Points (-113, Caesars)
LaRavia should be in a good spot to produce offensively this evening. He’s scored 12 points in each of his last 2 games with Rui Hachimura inactive this season. He’s gone over this number in 5 of 7 games with Austin Reaves unavailable. In the only game that both Hachimura and Reaves missed, LaRavia scored 12 points on 11 field goal attempts against the Clippers.
According to our RotoGrinders CourtIQ tool, LaRavia is averaging 10.5 points per 24 minutes this season with both Hachimura and Reaves off of the floor. The math shows value on the over.
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