There are three NBA games tonight, beginning with the Philadelphia 76ers hosting the Charlotte Hornets. How will Joel Embiid perform in that game? Later, Brook Lopez will look to have another solid rebounding game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Also, how many three-pointers can Tyler Herro knock down against the Oklahoma City Thunder?
Here are the three best NBA PrizePicks player predictions for Friday, December 20.
There are three NBA games tonight, beginning with the Philadelphia 76ers hosting the Charlotte Hornets. How will Joel Embiid perform in that game? Later, Brook Lopez will look to have another solid rebounding game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Also, how many three-pointers can Tyler Herro knock down against the Oklahoma City Thunder?
Here are the three best NBA PrizePicks player predictions for Friday, December 20.
For just the seventh time this season, Joel Embiid will take the court for the 76ers. He has topped 30 points in two of his last three games, but he managed only 12 in 17 minutes the last time he played. Tonight, he gets a solid matchup against a defense ranked right in the middle of the league. As long as he plays the minutes he's supposed to, he'll easily clear this number.
Embiid has played at least 30 minutes four times this season. He's cleared this number in two of those games with ease. What's interesting about Embiid is he either crushes this number or doesn't even come close. In the two games where he topped this number, he combined for at least 43 in each contest. In the two games where he didn't hit this number yet played at least 30 minutes, he didn't go over 28. The Hornets don't do anything particularly well defensively. With a week of rest under his belt, Embiid will come out fresh and crush this number.
Tyler Herro has made at least four three-pointers in three consecutive games. However, this player prediction is worth taking a chance on, especially since you're getting inflated odds for taking the less than. Herro is averaging 4.2 made three-pointers per game this season. In December, he is averaging 4.4, and he knocked down nine shots from beyond the arc against the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this month.
But he faces one of the toughest matchups in the league tonight, as the Thunder are allowing just 12.7 made three-pointers per game this year. When it comes to opponent three-point shooting percentage, the Thunder rank second in the NBA, allowing opponents to make just 33.4% of their attempts from deep. For as good as Herro has been, he still has two games this month with two or fewer made three-pointers. And he had a stretch of three consecutive games where he made fewer than four three-pointers in mid-November. In a tough matchup, look for him to struggle.
Brook Lopez is coming off one of his best rebounding games of the season, as he pulled down nine boards against the Thunder in the NBA Cup Championship game. While the performance was great, it was also an outlier, as Lopez is averaging just 4.9 rebounds per game this season.
All that said, this has been a good matchup for Lopez this season. He has pulled down six rebounds in each of his games against the Cavaliers this year and nothing has changed to make me believe he won't have similar success tonight. In December, he has grabbed at least five rebounds in five of his seven games. Though the Cavaliers are solid at preventing opponent rebounds, this is a matchup that has been favorable for Lopez, and he's hot right now.
Make sure to check out our other best bets for Friday:
