{"id":389991,"date":"2025-12-31T14:46:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T19:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=389991"},"modified":"2025-12-31T14:46:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T19:46:59","slug":"nba-prop-picks-and-predictions-december-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/nba-prop-picks-and-predictions-december-31\/","title":{"rendered":"Best NBA prop picks Dec. 31: Bet on Giannis Antetokounmpo to go off on New Year&#8217;s Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There&#8217;s NBA action all day on New Year&#8217;s Eve, and I have prop picks to share from three different games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tonight&#8217;s NBA props narrative:<\/strong> In the final game on Wednesday, look for Antetokounmpo to have a monster performance against the Washington Wizards. Earlier on, Derik Queen has the right matchup to do damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-8f1effd0-db18-40a8-916e-091372420d9e\">Check out my top NBA prop picks for Dec. 31, featuring a prediction on Stephon Castle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"acq_only\"><strong>-> <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.com\/promoRedirect?key=ej0xMzUyNTA0MiZsPTEzNTI1MDAwJnA9ODMzNw%3D%3D\">Join NorthStar Bets &amp; start betting on the NBA<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"block-0a4ee124-09d4-4260-81c9-fd6fe232dbb3\">NBA prop picks Dec. 31<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-479767b6-5872-497b-ac44-239c07c7e3d5\"><strong>Best bet:<\/strong> <strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong>Antetokounmpo over 27.5 points (-118)<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8216;Greek Freak&#8217; missed most of December recovering from injury. Since he returned just after Christmas, he&#8217;s been on a minute restriction, but this number is achievable even in limited minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite playing around 25 minutes in both games, Giannis is 1-1 against this line, finishing with 24+ points in each. He still has an incredibly high offensive floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of that, the total for this game is 246.5 points, the highest of any matchup today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"acq_only\"><strong>-> <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.com\/promoRedirect?key=ej0xMzUyNTA0MiZsPTEzNTI1MDAwJnA9ODMzNw%3D%3D\">Bet on Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There should be a lot of points scored, and the Wizards have no one to match Giannis in the paint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Washington allows the fourth most points per game to power forwards (24.73). It also allows opponents to shoot 59.1% inside 10 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is where Giannis does most of his work, and he should take advantage of the Wizards&#8217; poor rim defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-479767b6-5872-497b-ac44-239c07c7e3d5\"><strong>Key stat<\/strong>: Antetokounmpo has gone over this total in five of his past seven games against the Wizards, averaging 33.0 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Best NBA picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong><strong>Queen over 12.5 points (<\/strong><\/strong>-120)<\/strong>: Another team that struggles to guard the paint is the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Queen can expose that on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Chicago concedes the third most points to centres (24.92), per Fantasy Pros.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Overall, the Bulls have the seventh-worst defensive rating in the NBA (119.3).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"acq_only\"><strong>-> <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.com\/promoRedirect?key=ej0xMzUyNTA0MiZsPTEzNTI1MDAwJnA9ODMzNw%3D%3D\">Full betting markets for Wednesday&#8217;s NBA slate<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Queen has been solid as a rookie, scoring 13.3 points while making 22 starts for the New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He&#8217;s been even better over the last 10 games, upping his scoring average to 16.2 points while going 7-3 against this wager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This has all the makings of a smash spot for Queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NBA player prop predictions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong><strong>Castle over 6.5 assists (<\/strong><\/strong>-137)<\/strong>: The first thing to note is that Castle is questionable for tonight&#8217;s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If he plays, this is a great wager. If he doesn&#8217;t, it simply voids, and there&#8217;s no harm done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Castle is having a tremendous second season as a passer, recording 7.0 assists per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"acq_only\"><strong><strong>-> <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.com\/promoRedirect?key=ej0xMzUyNTA0MiZsPTEzNTI1MDAwJnA9ODMzNw%3D%3D\">Bet on tonight&#8217;s Knicks vs. Spurs matchup<\/a><\/strong>!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He&#8217;s been extremely consistent in that department. Castle has cashed this wager in six of the past seven games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Victor Wembanyama is also in the lineup, it makes it easy for Castle to rack up assists.  He&#8217;s 12-4 against this wager in his last 16 games with Wemby active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-84329f2b-7888-4034-9979-03e8608897e5\"><em>NBA prop picks made at 2:45 p.m. ET on Dec. 31, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"acq_only\"><strong>-> <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.com\/promoRedirect?key=ej0xMzUyNTA0MiZsPTEzNTI1MDAwJnA9ODMzNw%3D%3D\">Sign up to NorthStar Bets today<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s NBA action all day on New Year&#8217;s Eve, and I have prop picks to share from three different games. Tonight&#8217;s NBA props narrative: In the final game on Wednesday, look for Antetokounmpo to have a monster performance against the Washington Wizards. Earlier on, Derik Queen has the right matchup to do damage. Check out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":389681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[452,62],"tags":[208],"class_list":["post-389991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-com","category-nba","tag-nba-props"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NBA prop picks Dec. 31: Best bets, predictions &amp; odds | The Boost<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NBA prop picks Dec. 31, 2025. 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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.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Spencer_Closs\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/author\/scloss\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NBA prop picks Dec. 31: Best bets, predictions & odds | The Boost","description":"NBA prop picks Dec. 31, 2025. 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