Friday features a light, three-game slate but I’m still targeting a trio of players on the quiet NBA night.
The pregame narrative: I expect Darius Garland to eat against the Milwaukee Bucks and am backing Miami Heat teammates Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo in their matchup versus the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Check out the best NBA prop bets for Dec. 20.
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Best bet: Garland over 26.5 points/assists (-125)
Milwaukee star Damian Lillard is out but I still think a competitive game is in play here, which should keep Garland on the court.
The NBA Cup-winning Bucks are playing really good basketball, going 8-2 in their last 10. Cleveland, meanwhile, has an NBA-best 23-4 record.
These teams played twice in three nights in November and Cleveland won by a point and followed it with a two-point win.
Since then, the Bucks are 14-5. They’ve only lost two of those games by more than six points.
Garland was productive in both outings versus Milwaukee, putting up an 11/10 double-double and then blowing past this line with a 39-point, eight-assist effort.
Point guards have shredded Milwaukee this season and Garland has already proven capable of that, so I’m happy to back him at this number.
He’s averaging 26.8 points/assists through 26 games and putting up career-best shooting splits (48/41/93).
With fresh legs (Cleveland hasn’t played since Monday), look for Garland to torch the Bucks tonight.
Key stat: Milwaukee allows the most points per game to point guards, per Betting Pros.
Quick picks
Herro over 21.5 points (-118): The Thunder play great defence and shut down the guard positions, but I’ll jump on this line nearly any time I see it.
Herro is having the best season of his career and is the Heat’s top scorer.
- Herro is averaging 24.1 PPG
- Cleared this line in 7 of last 9
- Scored 20+ points in 66% of games
The sharpshooter lives around this number on a nightly basis and has been extra efficient (47.6% from the field, 41.3% from deep).
His 3-point volume can help offset poor shooting nights, too.
Only three players attempt more threes than Herro (10.1) and only two (LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards) make more than his 4.2 per game.
Adebayo over 15.5 rebounds/assists (-134): The Heat centre has been wildly disappointing from a scoring perspective, averaging 16.2 points on a career-low 44.3% rate from the field.
But he’s been productive on the glass and as a distributor, bringing in averages of 10.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists into tonight’s matchup. Both are just off his career-best marks.
Adebayo is staring down a plus matchup in that regard, as the Thunder rank last in the NBA in rebounding rate and allow the fourth-most assists per game to centres.
The three-time all-star has cleared this line in seven of his last nine contests and is averaging 12.9 rebounds and 5.9 assists in seven December games.
Picks made at 12:43 p.m. ET on 12/20/2024.
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.