Three young, up-and-coming big men headline Sunday’s NBA prop bets
The pregame narrative: I’m backing Alexandre Sarr to take advantage of a good matchup and be active in the paint. I also like bets on Evan Mobley and Alperen Sengun.
Check out the best NBA prop bets for Jan. 5.
NBA prop bets
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Best Bet: Sarr over 19.5 points/rebounds (-124)
The rookie centre is showing his potential as his confidence increases in an NBA offence.
Sarr has scored double-digit points in 10 straight games and the New Orleans Pelicans provide a great matchup for his position.
The Pelicans concede the second most points/rebounds per contest (41.6) to centres.
Sarr had 19 points and seven rebounds (26 PR) in the game against New Orleans on Friday.
Key stat: He is 8-3 against this line in his last 11.
Quick picks
Mobley over 19.5 points (-108): The former third pick is shaping up to be an all-star this season and his recent play is certainly helping that claim.
Mobley has cleared this line in seven of his last 10 games. That includes a career-high 41 points against his opponent tonight, the Charlotte Hornets.
That’s unsurprising considering the Hornets provide a juicy matchup for power forwards.
Charlotte allows the fourth-most points per game (24.3) to opposing PFs.
The scary part is Mobley doesn’t need a lot of minutes to cash this wager. In the Cavs’ game against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday, Mobley had 34 points in 29 minutes. He shot 14/21 (66.7%).
Mobley is shooting 63.4% from the field and 53.8% from three while averaging 21.2 points over the last 10 games.
Sengun over 10.5 rebounds (+104): Like usual, Anthony Davis is on the injury report for the Los Angeles Lakers but the big man is reported as probable for Sunday by RotoWire.
That is important to monitor because, with Davis in the paint, Sengun has to battle harder than usual for rebounds.
We can see that in Sengun’s most recent results against the Lakers:
- Jan. 29, 2024: 12 rebounds
- Dec. 2, 2023: 13 rebounds
In fact, Sengun has cleared this line in five of seven outings where he’s played 30-plus minutes against Los Angeles in his career.
The biggest worry here is a blowout but I predict a tight game with the Houston Rockets being small favourites.
Picks made at 9:17 a.m. ET on 01/05/2025.
Spencer is a true sports junkie. A graduate of the Sports Journalism program at Centennial College, he first joined NorthStar Gaming as an intern in 2023. He is now a contributing writer. He loves finding the edge to bet on in all sports but has a deep passion for the NBA and UFC. Previous stops include Sportsnet.