The NBA postseason has arrived, and on Tuesday, the Orlando Magic will battle the Atlanta Hawks for the East's seventh seed, while the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors will meet with the West's seventh seed on the line.
Onyeka Okongwu exploded for 30 points the last time he faced the Magic, but will he have the same success on Tuesday? Will Wendell Carter Jr. perform well on the glass in the same game? In the late game, how will Moses Moody shoot from beyond the arc?
Here are the three best NBA PrizePicks plays for Tuesday, April 15th.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily NBA projections >>
The NBA postseason has arrived, and on Tuesday, the Orlando Magic will battle the Atlanta Hawks for the East's seventh seed, while the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors will meet with the West's seventh seed on the line.
Onyeka Okongwu exploded for 30 points the last time he faced the Magic, but will he have the same success on Tuesday? Will Wendell Carter Jr. perform well on the glass in the same game? In the late game, how will Moses Moody shoot from beyond the arc?
Here are the three best NBA PrizePicks plays for Tuesday, April 15th.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily NBA projections >>
Tuesday’s Best NBA PrizePicks Player Predictions
This Season: 71-52
Scoring totals are going to go under a lot in the first game of the night, which is why I'm backing Onyeka Okongwu to put up fewer points than his season average. Though the Hawks and Magic combined for at least 218 points in all four of their regular-season meetings, the total is set below that on Tuesday, signaling oddsmakers expect the Magic's top-ranked scoring defense to set the tone for the game. That's bad news for Okongwu.
Okongwu averaged 13.4 points per game during the regular season, and he performed even better against the Magic, averaging 16.7 points per game in three contests. On April 8th, he scored 30 points in 40 minutes. While that performance was impressive, Okongwu has struggled in his other games against Orlando. In his first two games against the Magic, he combined for just 20 points, and he never scored more than 11 despite playing at least 29 minutes in both games. This number shouldn't be set higher than his season average, so the less than is the right play.
Wendell Carter Jr. averaged 7.2 rebounds per game this season, which is where this number should likely be set for Tuesday's game. Carter has faced the Hawks four times this season, and he's only topped nine rebounds once. In that game, he grabbed 15 boards in 32 minutes. There's no denying how impressive that is, but more recently he managed nine rebounds against the Hawks in 37 minutes.
Orlando’s defense will keep the Hawks from scoring their usual 118.2 points per game, and those missed shots could lead to more rebounds for Carter, especially if he sees elevated playing time during the postseason. But I don't know if he'll play more than 37 minutes, and even when he reached that number last time out against Atlanta, he struggled to clear this number. Carter averaged 7.3 rebounds per game against the Hawks despite his 15-rebound explosion, so the less than is the right play.
When it comes to three-point defense, the Grizzlies are average, at best. They rank 14th in opponent three-point field goal percentage, but they're just 21st in the league in three-pointers allowed per game. Moses Moody has already cleared this number in all three of his games against the Grizzlies this season, so this is a gift from PrizePicks.
Moody averaged 1.7 made threes in the regular season, and he went 7-of-13 from deep against the Grizzlies. Though this is the postseason, the Grizzlies and Warriors are still likely to light up the scoreboard. Moody has had no trouble getting shots up even when other Warriors are hot.
Phil Wood is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Phil, check out his archive and follow him @Phil_Wood_Jr.
