NBA Play-In Tournament Best Bets and Player Prop Picks for Tuesday

The NBA Playoffs officially tip off with the start of the Play-In Tournament on Tuesday night. The Western Conference games will play out on TNT with the Lakers at the Pelicans followed by the Warriors at the Kings.

The Pelicans are currently a 1-point favorite at home, while the Warriors are 3-point road favorites.

In this betting preview we will share our best bet and favorite player prop bets from the Tuesday night slate of NBA play-in games.

Best Bet: Golden State (-3)

Our best bet for Tuesday night are the Golden State Warriors, laying 3-points to the Sacramento Kings.

These two teams enter the Play-In Tournament on polar opposite trajectories. The Warriors have won 10-of-12 games and are playing their best basketball of the season. The Kings have won 5-of-12 games, beating only 2 playoff teams over that stretch.

While Sacramento has won the last 2 matchups against Golden State, they won both of those games by 1 points and had dropped 10-of-11 prior to that stretch.

We will lay the 3-points with the hotter, more experienced Warriors in this one.

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F Rui Hachimura (LAL): Over 12.5 Points

Come Play-In time, there should be a common belief that players who have consistently risen as secondary scoring options at times throughout this season should be trusted on as prop plays.

This is exactly the case for Hachimura, who has started in all but one came since the start of February while averaging 16.2 PPG post All Star break. The forward averaged exactly 12 PPG against the Pels this season, although he played two games off the bench with limited minutes.

Averaging 15.4 PPG on 44% shooting from deep as a starter this season, look for Hachimura to have a massive impact on both ends to give the Lakers another playoff birth.

G CJ McCollum (NOP): Over 4.5 Assists

With the Lakers allowing 14.2 3-pointers made this season including a league-worst 19.3 over their last three, we are expecting this game to hit its “over” with plenty of shooting opportunities for the Pelicans’ wings and guards from downtown.

Who will initiate those opportunities? None other than veteran CJ McCollum, who averaged 5.3 APG against LA this season while dominating as a playmaker against the Pacific division averaging 5.4 APG in 16 games played.

G Steph Curry (GSW): Over 38.5 Points + Rebounds + Assists

Similar to UConn in March, or Scottie Scheffler in early April, never bet against Stephen Curry during postseason play. Steph averaged over 40 PRA in the Kings/Warriors 7-game playoff series last season, hitting this PRA mark in all but one game.

Even if the Kings game plan to stop Curry as a scorer, we’ve seen that he’s been able to make his mark as a rebounding and playmaking guard filling up the stat sheet. Although Golden State lost that series against the Lakers when they deployed the double Curry plan, he still found his way to average 39.7 PRA during the series.

In a must-win game, we are betting on Curry to come through with a massive performance.

F Klay Thompson (GSW): Under 5.5 Rebounds + Assists

While Thompson could find his shooting stroke in this game (17 PPG against SAC this season), we are looking at his rebound and assist combo to go under, as it has in two of four games this season against the squad.

With the emergence of Kuminga and Podz alongside Draymond Green who is back to playmaking and rebounding at a high rate, we find it difficult to see a world where Klay gets these playmaking and rebounding opportunities on Tuesday night.