It’s Saturday and the NBA Play-In Tournament is set to commence in just 10 days. Games become all the more important for teams down the stretch. For some, the final week and change of the season offer the opportunity to enhance their playoff seeding. For others, it may ultimately decide whether they qualify for the postseason at all. Of course for bettors, the NBA betting market won’t hold the same daily volume of options much longer. Best take advantage while we still can! Our featured NBA player props for Saturday’s seven-game slate include picks for Gary Trent Jr., Kyrie Irving and DeMar DeRozan.
Yesterday’s NBA Player Props Recap
Once again, Friday saw us hit on two of our three featured NBA player props. Mo Bamba had a huge rebounding game to smash the over on 11.5. Reggie Bullock also stayed under 2.5 made 3-pointers to ensure us a handsome plus-money payout. As for Anthony Edwards, the rookie had another monster scoring night and managed to prove us wrong by exceeding 22.5 points. Sometimes all you can do is tip your cap in a scenario like that. Let’s look to continue what has been a great NBA betting week with our Saturday plays.
NBA Betting Prediction: NBA Player Props | May 8
Gary Trent Jr. (TOR) Over 19.5 Points
It’s natural to be cautious in making a bullish NBA prediction for a player who is making his return from a multi-game injury absence. Well, Raptors shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. added his name to the ever-growing list of players to go off in their returns to the court on Thursday. After missing six consecutive games, Trent returned to shoot 50% from beyond the arc and score 25 points. Unfortunately, Toronto still couldn’t get a win and certainly appear to be done for in terms of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. If they have one last push in them, it has to start tonight against the Memphis Grizzlies.
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Although Trent is only averaging 15.0 points per game this season, keep in mind that his time has been split between a Portland Trail Blazers squad laden with backcourt talent and the Raptors. While Toronto boasts some notable guards of their own, the unit will be far from 100% for tonight’s contest. Both Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet have been ruled out, as has depth player Paul Watson. Trent should see no shortage of minutes as a result, further boosting his chances of going over the NBA betting line of 19.5 points. Furthermore, the Grizzlies defense he will face statistically appears to be a promising matchup. Memphis joins the Raptors in ranking in the upper half of the NBA in pace. They also are a bottom-half scoring defense and don’t defend the 3-point shot particularly well either. Trent should be able to comfortably exceed the 20-point threshold tonight.
Kyrie Irving (BKN) Over 4.5 Rebounds
After suffering a narrow loss to the Utah Jazz last night, the Denver Nuggets will be right back on the hardwood this evening. Things don’t figure to come any easier against the high-flying Brooklyn Nets. Speaking of high-flying, Kyrie Irving followed up a 38-point performance on Tuesday by dropping another 45 on Thursday night in Dallas. Irving has been getting it done in other areas of the stat sheet as well. Thursday’s game saw him compile a line of 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks. It marked the continuation of a recent stretch in which Irving has gone over his season rebounding average of 4.9 per game more often than not.
The Awesemo NBA Player Props Tool is keen on Irving to hit the over on 4.5 rebounds once again tonight. In the last eight games he has played, Irving has now exceeded this total six times. Although the Nets and Nuggets are both among the best teams in terms of field goal percentage in the NBA, the fact that Denver is playing the second leg of a back-to-back tonight could lead to some tired legs and poor shooting. Assuming Irving sees his typical playing time of 35+ minutes, there’s no reason to think he can’t exceed this prop line once again. Furthermore, the OddsShopper Tool shows a major discrepancy in the odds on this prop. With great value to be found at specific sportsbooks in the market relative to others, this pick becomes even more appealing.
DeMar DeRozan (SAS) Under 7.5 Assists
The king of the mid-range jumper, DeMar DeRozan has averaged a healthy 7.2 assists per game this season to go along with his 21.5 points. However, that assists average checks in a notch below tonight’s NBA betting line of 7.5. DeRozan has fallen short of both his season average and that line in each of the last three games. While one of those games saw him play just 18 minutes, he most recently handed out 3 assists in 36 minutes of action on Thursday against the Sacramento Kings.
Outside of Derrick White, there is no injury situation that really factors into this play. The line just feels too high, even in a matchup against one of the NBA’s shakier scoring defenses in the Portland Trail Blazers. DeRozan will be leaned on heavily down the stretch of the season as the Spurs look to fend off the New Orleans Pelicans and claim a playoff berth. That being said, scoring is the focal point of his game, not distributing. Laying the juice associated with this under should be well worth it.
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