NBA First Basket Scorers & Picks: Saturday (Knicks vs. Pacers)
The Eastern Conference Finals head back to Indianapolis on Saturday. The Pacers will look to win their first conference championship in 25 years in front of their home crowd. New York, fresh off an impressive Game 5 win, will look to carry this momentum forward and force a pivotal Game 7 back in New York. With so much intrigue, there are plenty of ways to get in on the action. Here are some of my favorite NBA first basket plays to get Game 6 started with a bang.
Saturday’s Best NBA First Basket Scorers & Bets
(Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook)
Who will score the first basket in today’s NBA games? We compare historical first-basket stats to prop bet odds to help identify today’s best bets. View first-basket odds across sportsbooks here.
New York Knicks at Indiana Pacers NBA First Basket Scorers Picks
After winning the opening tip and scoring the first points of the series in Game 1, the Pacers have not produced a first basket the rest of the series. Mitchell Robinson has been out-jumping Myles Turner, and the Knicks have won the tip and scored first in four straight games. Given that Turner didn't perform well on jump balls all year, that trend is unlikely to change.
When you look at the matchups through the first four games, there are a few that stand out. The first of which is Jalen Brunson. The Knicks star point guard will need to have a good game on Saturday if they want to extend this series to Game 7. If the last few games are any indication, he should perform well.
Brunson has produced a first basket in two of the last four games. He's been impressive, scoring early for the Knicks in each game this series. The Knicks will once again look to get him going to help keep their season alive.
The other player I'm looking at is Karl-Anthony Towns. He hasn't had any success with this prop during this series, but he's been the Knicks' most successful first basket scorer all year with 14 on the season.
Headed into the series, the Pacers had been giving more first scores to centers than any other position. Although Towns has been moved to the four in this series, he still presents the same size and skill mismatch that made him lethal all year. It's worth putting a play on Towns in Game 6 despite the lack of success in this series so far.
Picks: Jalen Brunson (+380) & Karl-Anthony Towns (+650)