Monday’s NBA schedule features seven games and I have three prop picks for the slate.
The pregame narrative: My favourite bet is a play on Canadian Jamal Murray, while wagers on Josh Giddey and Karl-Anthony Towns round out the recommendations.
Check out the best NBA prop bets for Dec. 30.
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Best bet: Murray over 22.5 points (-125)
Russell Westbrook has started the last two games for the Denver Nuggets and it appears he’ll remain in the starting five while Aaron Gordon is sidelined.
That shifts Murray into even more of a scoring role and he’s responded emphatically in the last two games.
- Murray is coming off a season-high 34-point contest.
- He had 27 points in the game before that.
- In three games alongside Westbrook in the starting unit, Murray is averaging 29.7 points and shooting above 50% from the perimeter.
The small sample is encouraging and will hopefully unlock more out of Murray, whose numbers are down this season.
In addition to the lineup bump, Murray has a favourable matchup on Monday against the Utah Jazz.
Utah is last in the NBA in defensive efficiency, surrendering just shy of 120 points per game.
The team has been punished by guards, allowing the fourth-most points to point guards and the third-most to shooting guards (per Betting Pros).
Murray dropped 22 on 10-of-18 shooting versus the Jazz last month, and tonight’s game has the highest total of the evening (240 points).
Key stat: December has been Murray’s highest-scoring month and he’s topped this line in five of his last six games.
Quick picks
Giddey over 13.5 assists/rebounds (-122): Giddey returned from a near-two-week absence on Saturday, recording a massive triple-double against the Milwaukee Bucks in 29 minutes.
The first-year Chicago Bull had season-highs of 23 points and 15 rebounds while adding 10 assists.
It brought his assist/rebound average for the month up to 17.0 per game.
He’s 5-2 versus this line in December and had 16 assists/rebounds when he faced the Charlotte Hornets on Dec. 13.
Giddey has always been a solid rebounder (7.2/game for his career) and he enters the night averaging a career-best 7.0 assists per game.
Towns over 24.5 points (-124): The New York Knicks get the Washington Wizards for the second time in three nights.
Jalen Brunson stole the show with a 55-point performance on Saturday. But Towns did damage, too, dropping a 30-piece with 14 rebounds.
It was another example of the Wizards getting shredded by a centre (they allow the most PPG to the position) and Towns taking advantage of a plus matchup.
Here’s how Towns has done versus the six teams that allow the most points to centres:
- Vs. Wizards: 30 pts, 24 pts
- Vs. Suns: 34 pts
- Vs. Jazz: 16 pts
- Vs. Bulls: 46 pts
- Vs. Hawks: 34 pts, 19 pts
- Vs. Raptors: 31 pts, 24 pts
That works out to an average of 28.6 points, a nice bump from his season average (24.5).
Brunson is questionable as of Monday’s early afternoon NBA injury report. Towns’ outlook would be even better if his all-star teammate were unavailable.
Picks made at 12:25 p.m. ET on 12/30/2024.
Chris joined NorthStar Gaming from Covers.com where he was a publishing editor and wrote betting content. Before that, he was the sports editor at VICE Canada, worked for theScore and covered the Blue Jays for MLB.com. In addition to filling out the lineup card each day for the editorial team, Chris writes frequently himself, primarily on the NBA and MLB.