The NBA In-Season Tournament has reached the semifinals. The first semifinal features the Milwaukee Bucks hosting the Indiana Pacers. The second semifinal of the night sees the New Orleans Pelicans travel to face the Los Angeles Lakers.
Here are the three best NBA PrizePicks plays for Thursday, December 7.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily NBA projections >>
The NBA In-Season Tournament has reached the semifinals. The first semifinal features the Milwaukee Bucks hosting the Indiana Pacers. The second semifinal of the night sees the New Orleans Pelicans travel to face the Los Angeles Lakers.
Here are the three best NBA PrizePicks plays for Thursday, December 7.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily NBA projections >>
Thursday’s Best NBA PrizePicks Player Predictions
This Season: 11-21
McCollum hasn't dished out fewer than five assists in a game this season. With a floor that high, it's impossible not to take his over. McCollum is averaging 6.0 assists per game, and he has posted a total of 15 in his last two.
This may seem like a trap from oddsmakers, but McCollum has posted exactly five assists in four of his nine games. So while his averages, recent trends, and high floor all point to this over hitting, he still would have missed this prop in nearly half of his games. With that being said, the Lakers' defense ranks 20th in assists allowed per game. Even though the Lakers have allowed just 200 points in their last two games, McCollum will have more than enough opportunities to hit his season average in this game.
Mathurin has scored 16 points in back-to-back games after scoring 12 or fewer in two consecutive matches to end November. Additionally, when these two teams met earlier this season, Mathurin scored a season-high 26 points. All signs should be pointing to an over for him tonight.
However, he's averaging just 13.2 points and 24.7 minutes per game. In his first meeting with the Bucks, he played 36 minutes, but he won't come anywhere near that total tonight. Mathurin has not put up more than 14 shots in any game where he's played fewer than 30 minutes this season. When he scored 26 against the Bucks earlier this season, he put up 18 attempts. Though he's been hot, this is a prime spot for him to revert to his average.
When the Bucks and Pacers met earlier this season, Lopez finished with just two points. He shot just 1-7 from the field including 0-4 from deep. It was an off-night for the big man, but we expect him to have more success tonight.
The Pacers allow the second-most points in the NBA but shockingly, they're allowing the fewest points from beyond the arc this season. However, that success doesn't tell the whole story. The only reason they're allowing so few points from beyond the arc is because they're allowing the most points in the paint.
The Pacers are the second-worst team in the league in opponent three-point percentage. They're allowing their opponents to hit 39.1% of their attempts from deep. Nearly half of Lopez's attempts have been from beyond the arc this season. But in this game, we expect him to go inside for easy buckets more than usual. Additionally, as a 35.8% three-point shooter who attempts an average of 5.0 shots from deep per game, he should take advantage of a team that doesn't play three-point defense all that well.
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.
