We've got Game 5s in both of Tuesday's NBA Playoff games, and both home teams are looking to bounce back after road losses on Sunday. There are two guards whom I expect big performances from in tonight's games, and PrizePicks offers the best way to play them.
A quick refresher if you aren’t familiar with PrizePicks: you can combine up to five different player squares to payout up to 10x your entry.
You can do a Flex Play or a Power Play. A Flex Play gives you lesser odds, but you can win money if you do not nail every pick. A Power Play is all-or-nothing.
For today's pice, we're leaning into Action Network's tools, which has projections for players in both of Tuesday's Game 5 matchups. Here’s how I would approach today’s slate in NBA Playoffs slate.
What is PrizePicks? A daily fantasy operator — meaning they’re available in more states (30) than sports betting is! — PrizePicks offers a unique opportunity for action on player props in which you squares two or more plays together.
Jaylen Brown More Than 24.5 Points
Brown had a rough ending to Game 4 in Philadelphia. Along with giving up the go-ahead 3-pointer to James Harden in the corner, Brown attempted one shot in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime despite playing the full 10 minutes. When asked about it in the postgame press conference, Brown paused before saying he needs to "demand the ball more."
In this series, he has scored below this projection in three of the four games, hitting the 23-point mark exactly in all three of the games he fell below this number. In the one game in which he scored more than 24.5 points, Brown scored exactly 25 points.
According to Action Network's projections, Brown is slated to score 26.15 points in Game 5. He's been great at home in the playoffs and has averaged 26 points at TD Garden Arena compared to 23 points on the road.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope More Than 11.5 Points + Rebounds
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been relatively steady in the playoffs save for a few games scoring in single digits. He has scored at least 10 points in three games this series, with a 14-point output in Game 2 as his highest. His offensive game should do the heavy lifting for the projection.
KCP should see plenty of floor time because of his perimeter defense (no one has been able to stop Devin Booker, but someone has to try, right?). On offense, he'll continue to be the beneficiary of double teams on Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, which should lead to open shots — Caldwell-Pope is shooting 39.5% on 3s in the playoffs.
As far as the rebounding, KCP is averaging 2.7 boards per game in the postseason, and even if he scored exactly 10 points, as he's done for most of this series, he only needs two rebounds to have more than this projection. Action Network's tool has Caldwell-Pope projected at 15.43 combined points and rebounds.
