We expect strong games from role players Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, and Al Horford as the Boston Celtics close out the Mavericks at home in Game 5. Boston opened as a 7.5-point favorite, with the line currently sitting at -6.5 for tonight’s game.
With the NBA season potentially ending tonight, sportsbooks have rolled out a full suite of player prop betting options. Our team broke down the odds for every available prop to identify our four best bet picks.
While you can’t bet against Luka as a scorer, this series has been tough on his rebounding and assist numbers, with Kyrie being a solid primary playmaker in space and Lively crashing the boards at a high rate. Luka has only reached this prop mark once this Finals and has put up 12 or fewer rebounds + assists in his other three outings.
With added energy on the defensive end after a Game 3 debacle, look for Doncic to expend his energy mostly on defensive stops on the Celtics guards and self-creation on and off the ball on offense which will continue to limit his rebounding and assist totals.
Derrick White is a different shooter at home. White has hit this prop in six of ten Celtic home games this postseason while making a total of 61 3-pointers over the course of the Celtics' 18-game postseason. That’s already 11 more than last season where Boston played 20 games.
Mazzulla and the Boston stars trust White from beyond the arc and have given him the green light to shoot 7 or more 3s a game (a number he has reached in 16 of 18 playoff games). It is within the Celtics' scheme to get White these shots and in a crucial game at home, we believe he’ll come up clutch and make 50% or more of his deep shots tonight.
Holiday will look to defend Luka and Kyrie much better in Game 5 after letting the two Dallas stars run all over the C’s backcourt duo in Game 4.
Holiday has only reached this prop once in the finals - during Game 2. However, if we look back at the 2021 NBA Finals, we can see how Jrue’s impact is truly shown on the stat sheet during crunch time situations. Jrue finished the last three games of the ‘21 Finals with 11 combined steals & blocks. While he was tasked with guarding the Suns' lead guard Devin Booker, he made some incredible defensive plays in the final game to secure Milwaukee the victory.
Looking ahead to this game, don’t be shocked if Jrue catches some of Dallas’s non-playmakers such as DJJ and Washington in tough spots for an easy block or steal.
Horford is the closest he’s been to lifting a Finals trophy in what will be his final or one of his final seasons in the NBA. At home in Game 5, Al certainly will go down swinging. With Tatum and Brown forcing the Mavs defense to crash the paint early, look for open kick-outs to Horford, who has made two or more threes in five of ten home playoff games.
During the regular season, Al shot over 43% from beyond the arc at home and from the corner, could get scorching hot. We think he comes up big in Monday night's closeout game.