The NBA playoffs nears its culmination. It’s what everyone has been waiting for for the past month and change. After the Knicks sat around for a bit, they were joined by the Spurs for a rematch of the 1999 NBA Finals. Before the series tips off on Wednesday, we’re hitting you with a trio of futures that you should get in on.
Come check out what we’ve got cooked up or NBA futures this round.
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NBA Playoff Futures – NBA Finals
San Antonio Spurs -1.5 Games (+115)
While the Knicks walked their way through the Eastern Conference, I have a hard time imagining that they are going to have as easy of a time with San Antonio. The way that Victor Wembanyama distrupts the paint is going to make the Knicks a team that is rather one-dimensional. At the end of the day, I think that’s a disaster for New York, who is looking to win their first NBA Finals since 1973.
In addition to liking the Spurs on the series line, I’m going to take them against the spread here. Not only does it move it to a plus-number, but they only have to avoid Game 7 for it to cash. The only team that has taken them to a Game 7 so far is the defening champion Oklahoma City Thunder. While the Knicks haven’t been deep either, their strength of schedule is just so much worse. I’ll take the Spurs in five games with one game of wiggle room here on this prop.
Series Rebounding Leader – Karl-Anthony Towns (+140)
The odds on favorite to lead the series in rebounding is Victor Wembanyama. However, his ability to throw up some duds in the playoffs really hurts his chances to lead a series. In 16 games this postseason, he came in at six or less in six of them. He had eight or less in half of them. So while he was able to put up some big numbers in some of those games, the games where he has low numbers on the boards are particularly bad.
Wembanyama having some low scoring games of course opens the door for someone else. Karl-Anthony Towns was a much more stable force when it comes to grabbing boards. In 14 playoff games, he only came in with six or less on two occasions, and had 13 or more in four of them. The big gaudy numbers are fewer and further between with him in comparision to Wemby, but we’ll take the stable numbers to a plus-money win here.
Highest Scoring Performance – Jalen Brunson (+150)
The highest scoring performance in a single game is always a tremendous sweat during the NBA Finals. There are plenty of players in this series who can bust out for a big spot. However, this seems like a two-person race to me. Victor Wembanyama and Jalen Brunson are the two guys who are going to try to take over games. When a team is down or is cold, these are the two names that you’re going to see with an absurd amount of attempts to try to get back in it.
The difference for me is that Wembanyama seems to have more guys who can support him in this series. He had six different players average ten points per game in the Conference Finals. Brunson will not be counting on Mikal Bridges to have career games in this series and as a result will likely put up a 40-spot at least once to lead this series.
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