The Lakers dropped the ball in Game 3 and are in a position no team has ever come back from in the NBA. Down 3-0, their backs are against the wall, but the lead doesn’t accurately depict how close these games have been. The two games in Denver came down to the wire, and even Game 3 was relatively close. L.A. had the lead with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter before it ultimately got out of hand. Hopefully, LeBron can will this team to a victory to give us more playoff basketball come Wednesday.
Monday’s Best NBA PrizePicks Player Predictions
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for NBA action on Monday, May 22.
The Lakers’ third-best scoring option, Austin Reaves, has been on fire as of late. He has scored 22+ points in four straight games and 21+ in five of his last six. The Oklahoma native is seeing plenty of time on the floor, averaging 37.8 minutes per game over this span. With D’Angelo Russell playing as poorly as he has, Reaves has been the one to step up in his absence, and I expect him to do the same once again tonight.
The Lakers dropped the ball in Game 3 and are in a position no team has ever come back from in the NBA. Down 3-0, their backs are against the wall, but the lead doesn’t accurately depict how close these games have been. The two games in Denver came down to the wire, and even Game 3 was relatively close. L.A. had the lead with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter before it ultimately got out of hand. Hopefully, LeBron can will this team to a victory to give us more playoff basketball come Wednesday.
Monday’s Best NBA PrizePicks Player Predictions
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for NBA action on Monday, May 22.
The Lakers’ third-best scoring option, Austin Reaves, has been on fire as of late. He has scored 22+ points in four straight games and 21+ in five of his last six. The Oklahoma native is seeing plenty of time on the floor, averaging 37.8 minutes per game over this span. With D’Angelo Russell playing as poorly as he has, Reaves has been the one to step up in his absence, and I expect him to do the same once again tonight.
Not typically known as a rebounding machine, Michael Porter Jr. has become one more recently. He has double-digit boards in four of his last seven games, seven or more in six of the seven, averaging 8.9 rebounds per game over this span. In five matchups with Los Angeles this season, MPJ has recorded 9, 7, 10, 7, and 10 rebounds. In the playoffs overall, he has seven or more rebounds in nine of 14 games and last game, he finished with 18 rebound chances. Ride the rebounding trend with MPJ once again.
After lighting the Grizzlies on fire in the first couple of games of round one, Hachimura took a bit of a back-seat against the Warriors. The Western Conference Finals have been a different story, though. The Lakers have featured Hachimura significantly more in the series in order to match up with Nikola Jokic on defense.
Across the first three games, he is averaging 30.7 minutes per game (fourth-highest on the team) which has led to scoring outputs of 17, 21, and 13 points. With that much playing time, they clearly believe he is their best option off the bench right now. Rui is a mismatch for the Nuggets right now, and if he continues to see this much time, he should go over this mark.
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Tyler Gentile is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Tyler, follow him @808Paperboi.
