The NBA brings us 9 games on Monday night to help fill the void of not having Monday Night Football. We will see a fascinating encounter between the Phoenix Suns and Philadelphia 76ers. Both teams find themselves with losing records so far — not where they would have imagined being considering the lofty expectations for both. A win here could help get their seasons back on track.
You can find our NBA previews here, but for now take a look at my favorite player props below.
Jusuf Nurkic will be coming back from his suspension tonight and it comes at a perfect time for the Phoenix Suns as they take on the Philadelphia 76ers. Their opponents tonight have both Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond down low, which means the Suns are unlikely to be able to pull off playing small. When the sides met earlier in the season, Nurkic put together a 15-point and 15-rebound performance. In that game the 76ers were without Embiid, and he is questionable on Monday. But even if matched up against Drummond, Nurkic should have a big part to play tonight. The Suns have their superstars available with Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker all more than capable of beating their man and drawing help. It should lead to at least a few pass down opportunities to Nurkic. He is more than capable of creating looks for himself on the offensive glass, too. This line feels too low, so let’s back the over.
Brook Lopez has been rebounding well of late; has managed at least 5 rebounds in 4 of his last 5 games. Lopez should have a great chance to improve on that here as he takes on the Toronto Raptors. He will be matched up against Jakob Poeltl, who tends to do most of his offensive work around the rim. The Raptors’ center is also 3rd in the league in offensive rebounds, meaning Lopez will have to battle him in the paint when Poeltl crashes the glass. With the size the Bucks center has, I expect him to win a fair few of these battles today. The Raptors are hardly the best team on the glass overall. Over the last 10 games they are 28th in opponent offensive rebounds per game and 25th in opponent rebounds. With the current streak Lopez is on and considering he is 7-feet tall, this over should not be beyond him tonight.
We are finally starting to see the type of rebounding performances from Josh Hart that he delivered last season. In his last 7 outings he has recorded at least 11 rebounds on 6 occasions. One of these was against the very same Orlando Magic team that he is taking on tonight. He had managed 13 in that game. The Magic could remain without their top 3 scorers with Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs all dealing with injuries. Their offense has struggled as a result, ranking 29th in true shooting percentage over the last 10 games. They are just 19th in rebounding percentage over the same time, so they may have issues chasing down their own misses. Their inefficiency from 3-point range — being 29th in 3-point percentage over the last 10 — should ensure there are more long rebounds for Hart to corral. The Magic miss too many shots for someone like Hart not to rack up rebounds.
