Tonight, the final two games of the NBA Play-In Tournament will be played, with the Atlanta Hawks hosting the Miami Heat and the Memphis Grizzlies hosting the Dallas Mavericks.
In the night’s first game, Trae Young will look to lead his team to the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference. Then, in the second game, Zach Edey will try to continue his dominance on the boards, while Santi Aldama will attempt to excel in a supporting role.
Here are the three best NBA PrizePicks player predictions for Friday, April 18th.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily NBA projections >>
Tonight, the final two games of the NBA Play-In Tournament will be played, with the Atlanta Hawks hosting the Miami Heat and the Memphis Grizzlies hosting the Dallas Mavericks.
In the night’s first game, Trae Young will look to lead his team to the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference. Then, in the second game, Zach Edey will try to continue his dominance on the boards, while Santi Aldama will attempt to excel in a supporting role.
Here are the three best NBA PrizePicks player predictions for Friday, April 18th.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily NBA projections >>
Friday’s Best NBA PrizePicks Player Predictions
This Season: 73-53
An assist number set at 11 is absurd, and yet, the more than is the right play. Trae Young had just six assists in a frustrating 40 minutes against the Orlando Magic on Tuesday, but he averaged 11.6 assists per game this season. I expect him to get back on track tonight.
The main reason I'm so confident in Young is his success against the Heat this season. He's faced them four times this year, dishing out at least 12 assists in three of those games. The only time he didn't, he assisted on eight made baskets in 36 minutes.
Before his six-assist performance against the Magic, Young had dished out double-digit assists in four consecutive games and 11 of his last 12. He leads the NBA in assists for a reason. He will top this very high number in a do-or-die game for the Hawks.
Though his team didn't get the win, Zach Edey's NBA postseason debut went about as well as it could have. He finished the game with 14 points and a whopping 17 rebounds. I expect a similar rebounding performance tonight.
While Edey averaged 8.3 rebounds per game during the regular season, he's seen a significant increase in playing time of late, which has directly correlated to more rebounds. Since April 1st, he's played at least 28 minutes in all seven of his games. He has at least 13 rebounds in six of those contests.
Edey’s season average is based on 21.3 minutes per game. If he continues to play 30+ minutes, this number should be set closer to 14.5 than 12.5, especially against a team allowing the ninth-most rebounds per game in the league.
Santi Aldama scored 14 points in Tuesday's loss to the Golden State Warriors. While he didn't light up the scoreboard, he shot well in that game, knocking down five of his eight shots and all three of his free throws. The game marked just his second double-digit performance in six tries, but there is still value in taking him to score at least 11 tonight.
Aldama has faced the Mavericks twice this season. He's had one good performance and one bad. The first time he played them, he went 7-of-8 from the floor and scored 15 points. The second time, he only scored six. While Aldama is averaging 1.8 made threes per game, he's just 1-of-3 against the Mavericks this season.
The Mavericks have one of the best three-point defenses in the league, which is a bit worrisome for a shooter like Aldama. However, he's already proven he can do enough damage inside against them to top this number and get near his season average of 12.5 points.
Make sure to check out our other best bets for Friday:
Phil Wood is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Phil, check out his archive and follow him @Phil_Wood_Jr.
