Paolo Banchero is part of our PrizePicks NBA card for Thursday evening.
We put together a second straight winning week of NBA PrizePicks props to close out March and are riding an 8-4-1 streak into the final weekend of the regular season. Thursday’s schedule features a small but significant group of matchups with playoff-seeding implications in four of five games.
The Miami Heat are playing on the road in Philadelphia as they attempt to claw their way out of the seventh seed, meaning they’d likely face the Chicago Bulls in the play-in tournament if the standings do not change. The Cleveland Cavaliers have locked up the fourth seed in the East and have a matchup with the Knicks ahead in the first round. They could be in rest mode tonight in Orlando.
Oklahoma City is the tenth seed in the West thanks to a tiebreaker over the Dallas Mavericks, and a victory against Utah would virtually eliminate the Jazz from playoff contention. Finally, the Denver Nuggets can clinch the top seed in the Western Conference with a win in Phoenix against one of the hotter teams in the association.
Our player prop best bets for the final Thursday of the regular season, courtesy of PrizePicks, are presented next.
Miami has only faced Philadelphia once since their playoff series last season when Jimmy Butler and Joel Embiid have both been active. Butler got the best of Embiid last May, averaging 32 points per game to Embiid’s 19.8 and shooting just shy of 55% from the floor, as the Heat eliminated the Sixers 4-2 in the 2nd round.
In their lone matchup this season, Butler and the Heat defeated Embiid and Philadelphia again. Butler scored 23 points while attempting just 14 shots and six free throws (his season average is 8.7 FTA) in Miami’s road victory despite 27 points from Embiid.
We expect Butler to attempt double-digit free throws tonight and activate his playoff-mode scoring streak against Philly.
Paolo Banchero UNDER 31.5 Pts+Rebs+Asts
Banchero has locked up the Rookie of the Year award, and the Magic have been eliminated from the playoffs within the last couple of games. He has little incentive to play 32+ minutes against another team whose fate is sealed.
We question whether Orlando will go deeper into their rotation for this matchup with Cleveland to begin assessing the roster for next season.
As a result, we project a modest night of 20-30 minutes for the 2022-23 ROY and expect him to finish under this combined total.
Josh Giddey UNDER 8.5 Rebounds
Giddey has amassed 28 double-doubles and four triple-doubles this season while leading the Thunder in rebounding and assists during his second season as a professional. He’s part of a young core that OKC is building around to compete with the Western Conference powers and has played at a high level for this team that hopes to make its first playoff appearance since 2020.
We’re fading this number because it’s slightly over-inflated relative to Giddey’s season-long performance. He’s only secured nine or more rebounds in 41% of his 75 games this season.
However, his recent play against the Lakers (17 rebs), Trail Blazers (11), and Hornets (10) has pushed this total higher, and we will play the under on Giddey’s rebounding total because of that.
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Nicholas Berault is a proud Penn State alum whose past work has been featured on FantasyPros. He is an avid golfer and a collector of pin flags and sneakers. As a senior writer at EatWatchBet, Nicholas serves as an NFL, CFB, and NBA betting analyst.
