Seven NBA games will be played tonight.
Max Strus will look to put up his second consecutive solid performance against the Boston Celtics. Kevin Huerter will attempt to break out of a terrible shooting slump, and Michael Porter Jr. will look to rebound after back-to-back poor shooting performances.
Here are the three best NBA PrizePicks plays for Thursday, Dec. 14.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily NBA projections >>
Seven NBA games will be played tonight.
Max Strus will look to put up his second consecutive solid performance against the Boston Celtics. Kevin Huerter will attempt to break out of a terrible shooting slump, and Michael Porter Jr. will look to rebound after back-to-back poor shooting performances.
Here are the three best NBA PrizePicks plays for Thursday, Dec. 14.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily NBA projections >>
This Season: 14-24
Strus combined for 29 points + assists + rebounds when he played the Celtics on Tuesday. So why will he suddenly struggle across the board against the same team tonight? Simply put, Tuesday's performance was far from what Strus normally does.
Strus is averaging 14.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. Earlier this month, he combined for 28 against the Orlando Magic. He played them again five days later and combined for just 11. The Celtics are a great defensive team, so for a player as inconsistent as Strus to perform great against them in back-to-back games would be surprising.
Huerter has been terrible in his last three games. He's managed a combined 10 points, shooting just 3-18 from the field during that span. Because of his poor shooting, he's played just 17 minutes in each of his last three games, significantly less than the 26.3 he's averaging per game.
However, Huerter's slump will come to an end in one of his next two games. He's shooting 42.9% from the field this season and 36.8% from deep. Tonight, he faces the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team allowing just 112.8 points per game. Still, we'd be taking Huerter at this number, no matter who he was playing. This is the perfect time to fade his recent performances and get in while his total is posted a full basket below his season average.
It's worth considering taking Porter Jr. to go over his three-pointers made total tonight. It's set at 2.5, and he's averaging 2.8 makes per game this season. The Brooklyn Nets are in the league’s top half in opponent three-point shooting percentage. So we recommend taking an over that you can hit if Porter Jr. makes just two three-pointers.
Porter Jr. has scored at least 17 points in five of his last seven games. He's averaging exactly 17 points per game this season. Though he's averaging 15.0 per game this month, that number is only low because of a three-point performance against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. Porter Jr. is averaging 13.7 field goal attempts per game this season and is shooting 47.5%. After shooting less than 40% in back-to-back games, look for Porter Jr. to revert to his average tonight.
Make sure to check out our other best bets for Thursday:
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Phil Wood is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Phil, check out his archive and follow him @Phil_Wood_Jr.
