{"id":340228,"date":"2025-04-18T14:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T18:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=340228"},"modified":"2025-04-18T14:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T18:10:09","slug":"nba-prop-bets-play-in-tournament-april-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/nba-prop-bets-play-in-tournament-april-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Best NBA play-in props April 18: Fade Okongwu and Lively, ride with Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;m buying in on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/nba\/players\/klay_thompson\">Klay Thompson<\/a> in a playoff-calibre atmosphere. That strategy has worked out many times in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-84329f2b-7888-4034-9979-03e8608897e5\"><strong>The pregame narrative<\/strong>: Can Thompson guide the Dallas Mavericks out of the play-in tournament? That remains to be seen, but I do like the over on his point total for Friday&#8217;s matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies. I&#8217;m also fading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/nba\/players\/onyeka_okongwu\">Onyeka Okongwu<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/nba\/players\/dereck_lively_ii\">Dereck Lively<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-8f1effd0-db18-40a8-916e-091372420d9e\">Check out the best NBA prop bets for the play-in tournament matchups on April 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"block-0a4ee124-09d4-4260-81c9-fd6fe232dbb3\">NBA prop bets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/sports\/basketball\/competitions\/10240\"><strong>Full NBA betting markets<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/article\/nba-injury-report-news\"><strong>NBA injury report<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/nba\/top-players\"><strong>NBA player stats<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/nba\/standings\"><strong>NBA standings<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-479767b6-5872-497b-ac44-239c07c7e3d5\"><strong>Best Bet: Thompson over 14.5 points (-110)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rumours of Thompson&#8217;s demise seem to have been exaggerated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the longtime Warrior walked to free agency, there was some skepticism about what Thompson would have in the tank for his age-34 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And sure, his volume stats are down \u2014 but his efficiency is holding up well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>2024-25 season:<\/strong> 39.1 3PT%, 90.5 FT%, 53.5 eFG%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Career:<\/strong> 41.1 3PT%, 86.0 FT%, 54.9 eFG%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Thompson averaged 14.0 points per game this season, which was his lowest sum since his rookie year (2011-12). Still, that puts him right around this total \u2014 and I expect him to be heavily involved in a win-or-go-home matchup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Wednesday, the four-time NBA champion dropped 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting (5-of-7 from 3-point range). He played 33-plus minutes for the first time in a month, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generating offence beyond the arc will be key for Thompson&#8217;s scoring ceiling, as it always has been. And the Memphis Grizzlies are a solid opponent for him to work against, as the Grizzlies allow the sixth-most attempted 3s per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thompson was running point for the Mavericks in their first play-in game. The Grizzlies have allowed the third-most PPG to opposing point guards over the past month, per Betting Pros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-479767b6-5872-497b-ac44-239c07c7e3d5\"><strong>Key stat<\/strong>: Thompson scored exactly 15 points in back-to-back matchups against Memphis (despite playing fewer than 30 minutes in both of those games).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Best NBA picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lively under 5.5 rebounds (-138):<\/strong> In Wednesday&#8217;s play-in game, there were seven Mavericks players with at least three rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lively wasn&#8217;t one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 7-foot-1 centre, who was the tallest man on the court for either team, finished with one rebound in 18 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Led by Anthony Davis, the Mavs have a small army of capable rebounders that needn&#8217;t rely on Lively. And given that he hasn&#8217;t played 20-plus minutes since January, I&#8217;m not looking to rely on him either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Memphis centre Zach Edey is averaging 15.9 rebounds\/game this month, and the Grizzlies allow the ninth-fewest rebounds to opposing centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Okongwu under 10.5 rebounds (+100): <\/strong>At 6-foot-8 and 235 pounds, Okongwu is a severely undersized centre. And this line is asking a lot of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Okongwu is averaging 10.0 rebounds in 41 games since being promoted to the starting lineup in January.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He has gone under 10.5 rebounds in 25 of those 41 games (61.0%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The fifth-year big has already seen the Miami Heat three times as a starter this year, and he finished with nine or fewer boards in each of those games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bam Adebayo (6-foot-9, 255 pounds) might be a bit undersized for a centre, but the Heat also have 7-footer Kel&#8217;el Ware in the frontcourt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miami has allowed the third-fewest rebounds to opposing centres in the past 30 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-84329f2b-7888-4034-9979-03e8608897e5\"><em>NBA prop picks made at 2:07 p.m. ET on 04\/18\/2025.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m buying in on Klay Thompson in a playoff-calibre atmosphere. That strategy has worked out many times in the past. The pregame narrative: Can Thompson guide the Dallas Mavericks out of the play-in tournament? That remains to be seen, but I do like the over on his point total for Friday&#8217;s matchup against the Memphis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":340134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[452,62],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-340228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-com","category-nba","tag-nba-betting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NBA prop bets April 18: Picks, predictions &amp; odds | NorthStar Bets<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our best NBA prop bets for April 18, 2025. 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