Some people like to sweat out a bet for 48 hard minutes – others like immediate satisfaction. Count us as being in the latter, which is why we like to get down with NBA first scorer props. And we’ve decided to pass that knowledge on to you with our first scorer bets for January 14. Go here for NBA Championship odds.
Of course, there are plenty out there taking blind guesses at this stuff. It’s easy to pick the most popular player or look at what happened in the last game. However, we spent the time pouring through the analytics to make sure that we give you the best odds to stay in the green on these first scorer props for January 14.
Come check out what we have cooked up for this slate of games.
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NBA First Scorer Props – January 14
Sacramento Kings vs. Milwaukee Bucks
Tipoff – 8:00 pm EST
Fiserv Forum – Milwaukee, WI
Broadcast – NBA TV
The Bucks continue to be one of the very best teams in the league at securing the first possession. They’re winning the tip at a 63.2% clip, which puts them in the top five in the league. On the other side of the coin, the Kings rank 27th in the league in that metric, winning just a third of the tips in their games. Not only do the Bucks lead in that category, but their sizeable lead in the first scorer success rate should give us all the confidence we need to go with a player on Milwaukee here.
There hasn’t been a lot of consistency in the first shot action of the Bucks lately. It’s made even more unclear by the fact that Giannis Antetokounmpo is listed as questionable for Tuesday’s contest. With that being said, I like the action that Brook Lopez has been seeing lately. He took the first shot last game and fired off one of the first three shots the game before. Both of those were from deep and one of them went in. Sacramento gives up the 3rd most points from three-pointers on the year, which means I’m dialing up another deep ball from the big guy.
First Scorer Bet for January 14: Brook Lopez (+900)
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Chicago Bulls
Tipoff – 8:00 pm EST
United Center – Chicago, IL
Broadcast – NBA TV
It’s not often that we back a team here that has a 27.5% win rate on jump balls. With the tip winner gettint 64.9% of the first buckets this year, it’s not a good habit to get into. However, it’s also not often that someone with a 27.5% tip win rate has a 17.0% advantage on the team they’re playing, but that’s exactly what we see here for New Orleans. Not only are they getting one of their first clear advantages on the tip, but they have a 21.2% lead when it comes to the first scorer success average. Those two numbers put them in a rare comfortable play area for Tuesday.
When a guy is fresh off of scoring the first bucket, you don’t always want to double down. In fact it is pretty rare that the same guy scores first for the same team two games in a row. However, as I mentioned before, this is anything but a normal game when it comes to the first scorer. Dejounte Murray scored first last game. He’s also taken the team’s first shot in three of the last four games. He’s also featured in the shot log’s first three shots in the other game in between and the game before that streak. That much action can’t be overlooked and we’ll look for him to hit back-to-back.
First Scorer Bet for January 14: Dejounte Murray (+600)
If you’d like even more info to help make your first scorer bets for January 14, check out the NBA Gambling Podcast. They’re dropping episodes five days a week to make you the smartest guy/gal at the bar.