Happy Thursday to all of you NBA fans out there! If you were paying attention to last night’s action, you’ll know that the Minnesota Timberwolves took care of the Los Angeles Lakers in five games, moving on to the conference semifinals. Meanwhile, the Houston Rockets stayed alive against the Golden State Warriors, forcing a Game 6 that’ll go down tomorrow night.
The playoff picture is shaping up nicely, and the Denver Nuggets have a chance to clinch their spot in the next round, but they’ll have to beat the Los Angeles Clippers tonight to make that happen. Will the Clippers force a Game 7? We’ll soon find out.
For now, we’ve looked at our favorite player props from the action, all of which can be found on Underdog. Let’s get into it, hoping to sweep the board after going 2-3 again last night.
Nikola Jokic UNDER 26.5 Points
It’s difficult to bet against Nikola Jokic, we recognize. He’s one of the best players in the NBA and could go down as one of the best big men in history when all is said and done. He’s a force to be reckoned with, but for some reason, he’s been quiet from a scoring perspective in their losses in this series, putting up 23 points in Game 5 and 26 in Game 6.
These aren’t bad nights by any means, but the Nuggets are used to him getting close to 30 points, if not more, so this has been a surprise. We do think the Clippers will win this contest to force a Game 7, fading Jokic’s point total as a result.
Jamal Murray OVER 21.5 Points
We might not be sold on Jokic tonight, but we’re going all-in on Jamal Murray, who is coming off a dominant 43-point Game 5. Murray shot an incredible 65.4% from the field, something that’s difficult to do when you take 26 shots, but he managed to make far more than he missed in this one.
Murray should show up in a big way tonight to help the Nuggets stay in it, and while we aren’t projecting another 40+ point game by any means, logging 22 shouldn’t be a problem at all.
James Harden UNDER 20.5 Points
The Clippers might as well put James Harden on a milk carton at this point. After a massive 32-point outing to start the series, Harden has been quiet as a church mouse, having 20 or fewer points in each of the past four games.
His low-scoring outputs haven’t necessarily hurt the Clippers, but they certainly aren’t helping them, and this team could certainly use his scoring and overall leadership. However, we just can’t trust him at the moment, so we’re fading him in this area until further notice.
