Germantas Kneita
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The NBA Eastern Conference semifinals begin on Sunday with the Miami Heat visiting the New York Knicks. Both teams were the lower seeds in the previous round and will now battle for a surprising conference finals berth. Out west, we will get to see our first Game 7 of this season. The Sacramento Kings came out surprise victors in Game 6 on the road against the Golden State Warriors. Now they return home where they will hope to finish the job.
Be sure to take a look at all of our NBA predictions for those games, but for now, let’s get into my NBA first-basket scorer selections.
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Heat vs Knicks first basket best bet: Julius Randle (+550)
Tonight, we are most likely to see Mitchell Robinson jumping at tip for the New York Knicks. He is likely to be up against Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo. The pair have come across each other 3 times in the regular season, with the Knicks gaining the opening possession twice. Robinson is the taller of the centers and should continue to maintain his advantage. Julius Randle should take over from there.
On the season no other Knick has opened the scoring more in the game or for the team than Randle. In 81 starts, the Knicks forward has opened the scoring for his team on 29 occasions, and 12 of these were the first points in the game. He could be up against Kevin Love tonight, who lacks the foot speed or length to really impact him. The Knicks have been top in defensive rating in this postseason, so they could get multiple attempts at this if needed.
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Warriors vs Kings first basket best bet: Stephen Curry (+460)
Through the first 6 games of this series, Kevon Looney has been better at tip-offs than Domantas Sabonis. He has gained the Warriors the opening possession on 4 occasions and should be favored to do the same again. With this being a Game 7 and on the road, I expect the Warriors’ veterans to step up, with Stephen Curry leading the charge.
Curry was able to score the opening points for the Warriors in Game 6 and I am expecting them to turn to him early again. The Kings are 11th in opponent 3-pointers made in the playoffs, an area Curry should be more than capable of punishing them from. He has shot above 40% from the arc in 4 of the 6 games in the series. Do not be surprised to see him using this to open the scoring today.
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