The Mavericks and Wolves battle for a trip to the Finals starting with Game 1. While Luka Doncic and Anthony Edwards are the headliners, watch for P.J. Washington, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Naz Reid to make key impacts for their teams this series.
Find the four player props that stand out as offering great value for Game 1.
Coming off an injury that forced Conley to miss Game 5 of the Nuggets series, he went on to play 39 minutes in a physical Game 7 that saw that Wolves go through to the next round. Now that we are at the Conference Finals, expect rotational minutes for Kyle Anderson, Naz Reid, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker to stabilize and for Conley to play no more than 30 minutes.
Although Conley is an integral piece to how Minnesota runs their offense, he’s only put up 17 and 11 PRA in games where he’s played 30 minutes or less this postseason. On only two nights of rest, we are looking for NAW and Conley to run the backcourt by committee this game as Alexander-Walker brings some additional size and energy to the lineup while Conley still nurses that injury.
After playing just 30 minutes in Game 6 due to some foul trouble, Washington’s point prop dropped drastically entering Game 1 of this series. A complimentary three-level scorer that has hit the 18 point mark four times this postseason, look for a solid contribution tonight from the newly added Washington.
With McDaniels on Luka and Edwards on Irving, Washington will have to get one of Conley, KAT, or Gobert, all of whom will have issues guarding him at the 3-point-line with little help coverage. We like this prop for Game 1 as Minnesota will still be figuring out how to guard Washington by the 2nd half.
With rotational minutes back up for grabs after a short rest and grueling series now closed, look for Coach Finch to put trust back into players such as NAW and Naz Reid in the 1st half of this game. Outside of a horrendous Game 7 showing from beyond the arc, Alexander-Walker has been a key contributor to the Wolves this postseason scoring 7 or more points in six of eleven contests while 25 and 31 MPG in each series.
Ultimately, with Mike Conley still coming off an injury and these rotations bound to go at eight deep again, look for NAW to have added opportunities off the bench.
In four career Game 1s, Edwards has hit 3 three-pointers or more in 75% of contests, including twice this postseason run. With Minnesota facing a Dallas team that is rock solid on the inside but lacks some athleticism on the outside, we are expecting Edwards to take advantage of the smaller matchup of Irving or slower matchup of Doncic in Game 1 by taking them dancing beyond the arc.
Ant went 10 of 22 from beyond the arc in four games against Dallas in the regular season. We're betting he manages to hit 3+ 3-pointers here in game 1.