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 February 19. 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 February 19.
Come check out what we have cooked up for this slate of games.
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NBA First Scorer Props – February 19
Charlotte Hornets vs. Los Angeles Lakers
Tipoff – 10:00 pm EST
crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
Broadcast – NBA TV
The two teams breaking our NBA fast have a lot in common when it comes to the early game action. Both have the exact same tip win rate on the year. Both also have two centers who are now taking the jumps that are far better than what their original season numbers look like. Mark Williams is winning 80.0% of his tips and Jaxson Hayes is winning 70.0% of his. The difference maker for me comes in the actual conversions though. In that category, the Lakers have a sizeable lead. They rank 5th in the category. Meanwhile, the Hornets come in at 18th in the NBA. For that reason, we’ll take the Lakers to score first at -135.
If we’re going to get cute and take a specific player, there are a couple that bring big value. In the Lakers’ last three games before the break, only two players showed up in the first three shots of the game log in each one. Jaxson Hayes and Rui Hachimura both got an insane amount of early action considering the star power on the team. In fact, they make up 88.9% of those early shots in that span. Jaxson Hayes has been getting the first scores recently, but that’s a trend that is hard to hold. As a result, I’m going to zag here and take the former Zag, Rui Hachimura.
First Scorer Bet for February 19: Rui Hachimura (+850)
If you’d like even more info to help make your first scorer bets for February 19, check out the NBA Gambling Podcast. They’re dropping episodes five days a week to make you the smartest guy/gal at the bar.
