NBA Player Props Parlay Finals Game 1 | June 10

The first game of the NBA Finals didn’t pan out exactly how many expected it, with the Celtics dominating from pillar to post to pick up an easy first win of the series. The final result was no major surprise, but the ease with which the home side pulled it off was, and unfortunately for us so too were a few of the individual stats from the game. We hit one of our three player props, that being Jayson Tatum’s rebounds, but the other two fell short relatively comfortably. We’re hoping for a bounce back in Game 2, so let’s dive right in and take a look at the three best bets which make up our player props parlay for Monday’s matchup. 

Jayson Tatum over 9.5 rebounds @ $1.91 | GetSetBet 

Straight back to the well on this one, to a bet which seemed to have plenty going for it heading into Game 1 and which, sure enough, hit the mark. After his 11-rebound effort in that game, Tatum’s recent history of hitting double figures in rebounds is even more compelling and makes the odds set by betting sites for him to get there in this game look very appealing. He doesn’t often clear nine rebounds significantly, but he is getting there nearly every game at the moment and has been ever since the playoffs began. After averaging 8.1 boards per game in the regular season, that number has gone up to 10.4 in the postseason, similar to last season when he managed 10.5 of them in the playoffs. Importantly, Tatum has reached that average by very consistently having 10 to 13 boards per game. After Game 1 of this series he has now played in 15 playoff games this season, and has cleared his rebound line set for this game of 9.5 in all but three of them. And with one of those three coming in his second game of the playoffs, he’s currently on a streak of 11 out of his past 13 games with at least ten rebounds. As mentioned earlier, those are some very compelling numbers. Even better, with most NBA betting sites there is a little bit of juice on the under, meaning that over 9.5 is at better value than usual. This looks like a really solid bet to start of Monday’s multi. 

Luka Doncic over 9.5 rebounds @ $1.95 | BlueBet 

Let’s continue with a similar trend here, with Doncic – like Tatum – also getting plenty of boards as his team has advanced through the playoffs. It’s not an uncommon trend in the postseason; generally a team’s best player will want to have the ball in his hands more and more as we get deeper into the playoffs. Already Doncic goes after boards during the regular season; he has averaged at least 7.8 of them per game each season of his career and was at 9.2 this season. But in the playoffs that generally goes up, and of the four seasons in which his Mavericks have got to the postseason, Doncic has averaged at least 9.7 boards per game in three of them. This year he is right on that number, but like Tatum he has developed the fun habit of very consistently just making his way into double figure rebounds. The ten boards that he grabbed in Game 1 marked the fourth time in five games that he has got to at least that number, while harking back even further he has now hit at least that number and subsequently cleared the line set for this game by betting agencies in nine of his last 11 games. For a bet which, again like Tatum, is even slightly better value than even money odds, nine out of 11 is a very good strike rate. After a poor team performance in Game 1, expect Doncic to come out with a point to prove on Tuesday, and hopefully, that includes him going after every ball as soon as it comes off the opposing ring. 

Kristaps Porzingis over to score 18+ points @ $2.40 

The final leg of the day will add a little value to our multi, and is based on what will hopefully be an uptick in minutes for Kristaps Porzingis in his second game back from injury. The Celtics’ starting centre throughout the course of the season, Porzingis missed a few weeks in the lead-up to this series through injury, during which Al Horford very capably filled in for him at the five position. As expected, in his first game back Porzingis had limited time on the floor, actually coming off the bench and playing only 20 minutes in the game. But he looked like he hadn’t missed a beat in those minutes, scoring 21 points on 8-13 shooting. For the season he averaged 20.1 points in 29.6 minutes, so while that amount of production was a bit of an anomaly given what he has averaged during the season, it will have given him plenty of confidence and with what will likely be a lot more minutes in Game 2, his points odds set by NBA betting sites look nice and juicy. Horford was solid in Game 1 as he always is, but importantly, the Celtics looked better with Porzingis on the floor. The Celtics were just +7 in Horford’s 30 minutes of action, while with Porzingis out there they were +13 in just 20 minutes. Whether coach Joe Mazzulla gives the starting spot back to Porzingis or not remains to be seen, but even if Porzingis comes off the bench he will likely end up with closer to 30 minutes to his name at the end of the game, based on the fact that he has a game under his belt already and how good he looked in that game. Expect close to 30 minutes for Porzingis in this one; the same number he averaged throughout the year when he averaged over 20 points per game. At significantly better than even money to get just 18 points, this looks like a great value bet to round out the multi.