The last spot in the conference finals is up for grabs on Sunday afternoon. The Nuggets look to spoil another top-seeded team’s run as they visit the Thunder one last time. While Game 7 has plenty of intirgued, it isn’t the winner that we’re after today. Instead we’re looking for a winning first bucket prop for May 18. Who is going to get themselves on the board first on Sunday?
We’ve run the data, we’ve look at the trends – now, come check out our first bucket props for May 18.
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NBA First Bucket Props – May 18
Denver Nuggets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
Tipoff – 3:30 pm EST
Paycom Center – Oklahoma City, OK
Broadcast – ABC
For the first score of the game, we’ll go with the Oklahoma City Thunder. They’re currently listed at -155 to get that first score, and I think there’s plenty of value on that. They’ve scored first in each of the last four games of the series. Furthermore, I think they’re due to win the tip here. Over the first six games of the series, the two split the tipoffs – three and three. However, when you look at the season stats, Chet Holmgren had much better tip numbers than Nikola Jokic (he led by a 10.5% clip). With tip winners getting 65.7% of all first buckets this year and the Thunder doing what they need to get these conversions, they’re the play.
If we want to get greedy and play an individual player in this one, why not Luguentz Dort? He hasn’t been the biggest scorer of this series, but he’s been pretty consistently in the early shot log. In each of the last two games, he’s taken one of the first three shots for the Thunder. If we look at the first three shots in the last five games, he accounts for 26.7% of those shots. With a four-figure line next to his name, that volume is too tempting.
First Bucket Bet for May 18: Luguentz Dort (+1000)
If you’d like even more info to help make your first bucket bets for May 18, check out the NBA Gambling Podcast. They’re dropping episodes five days a week to make you the smartest guy/gal at the bar.
