NBA Christmas Day is holiday tradition unlike any other. The best players and teams in the NBA square off for nearly 12 straight hours of basketball. Our annual Christmas Day commencement in Madison Square Garden has the 76ers squaring off against the Knicks. LeBron and Luka will showdown in the primetime slot and the best game of the day is easily the Bucks vs Celtics. To round out our Christmas slate, the Grizzlies take on the Warriors and finally, the Suns play the Nuggets. Let’s dive into some player props!
Line available at FanDuel Sportsbook at the time of publishing.
Julius Randle is coming off two outstanding games with 30 points against Toronto and 29 against Chicago, which explains why this line is at his season average of 35 points, rebounds and assists. Those matchups were against teams that are in the middle of the pack in aDRTG, whereas the 76ers are in the top 5 in the league for defensive rating, combined with bottom 5 in pace. Randle will struggle to put up gawdy rebounding numbers with Joel Embiid coming alive and his recent success from deep will also be difficult to match, as the 76ers are 1st overall in e3P% from a defensive standpoint. PJ Tucker, Paul Reed and Montrezl Harrell all have the ability to switch on Randle on the perimeter and make his day very difficult. Sorry to gift you an under to start the day, but it’s the right play. 1U
Line available at FanDuel Sportsbook at the time of publishing.
The Celtics are 4.5-point favorites in what could be a preview of the Eastern Conference Finals later this season. Milwaukee will have Khris Middleton again and should exploit all mismatches they can in order to win this game. The Celtics play a relatively undersized lineup with Smart/White/Brown/Tatum/Horford and Portis should be able to replicate last season’s success against the Celtics. In 4 games against Boston last season, Portis averaged 16.25 ppg. Over the last 3 games, Portis has been quiet, but Friday’s game against the Nets gave me the boost to make this my play. Portis played 26 minutes and went 5-11 from the field; both large jumps over his previous 2 games. The Nets represent a similar lineup as the Celtics, lacking a true center and post defender. I like Ports to get back to his 13.6 ppg on the road and 14.4 ppg in December on Christmas Day. 1U
Line available at FanDuel Sportsbook at the time of publishing.
Jamal Murray is coming off arguably his best game of the season on Friday night, posting 25-12-8 against the Portland Trail Blazers. This is right at his December averages of 28.9 points, rebounds and assists and the Suns have struggled of late against SGs, allowing 25-7-6 averages over the last 7 games. Murray hasn’t played the Suns yet this season, but if we go back to his matchups from 20-21, he hit this in all 3 games against them. He also hit this line in the Christmas Day game of that season as well. 1U
$5 pays $807
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