Zach Thompson shares his three favorite player prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook for Saturday’s six-game NBA slate.
The NBA has seven games on the scoreboard throughout this Saturday afternoon and evening. The Lakers and Nuggets meet in the big game on Saturday night on ABC, and there are three other games with national TV coverage with the Hornets visiting the Spurs at 3:30 p.m. ET on Prime Video, the Wizards shipping up to Boston to face the Celtics at 6:00 p.m. ET on NBA TV, and the Kings and Clippers closing out the night at 10:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. With plenty of action for NBA fans to absorb across the variety of matchups, let’s sort through and find some of the top NBA player prop bets to consider for this Saturday.
Which players are poised to cash in for bettors on Saturday? Here are my three favorite NBA prop bet picks on DraftKings Sportsbook for this evening’s contests.
Top NBA prop bet picks
Jayson Tatum u11.5 Rebounds + Assists (-120)
All three of my top props for this Saturday have to do with players working their way back from injury. While the two picks after this are overs, here I think it makes sense to attack the under on Tatum’s rebounds and assists. He sat out Thursday’s loss to the Thunder but is not on the injury report for Saturday.
The Wizards’ defense has been awful lately, so Tatum could flex and score a ton of points. That’s why I’m leaving scoring out of this prop and taking rebounds and assists. If the game does turn into a blowout, the Celtics won’t have much reason to push Tatum to play big minutes as he continues to work his way back.
In his first game back from injury, Tatum had 12 rebounds and seven assists to smash this prop, but he only had five rebounds plus assists against the Cavs and seven rebounds plus assists against the Spurs.
Taking the under on this prop is no slam on Tatum’s ability or how amazing his return is, but it just doesn’t seem like a place the C’s will push him to play a ton of minutes and have the chance to rack up more than 11 rebounds and assists.
Aaron Gordon o2.5 Assists (+132)
The Nuggets got Gordon back in the rotation last week after his second lengthy absence due to a hamstring strain this season. When he has been available, Gordon has been productive, but his prop lines are all still low since he’s ramping back up. He is listed as probable for Saturday after sitting Thursday’s game against the Spurs, which was the second night of a back-to-back.
Before sitting out, Gordon had a disappointing statistical game as his Nuggets blew out the Rockets on Wednesday. He only had to play 22 minutes and finished with zero points and just one assist. Before that down game, he had over this prop line in each of his first two games back, handing out three assists in 21 minutes against the Knicks and three assists in 28 minutes against the Thunder.
Dating back to before the injury, Gordon has at least three assists in eight of his last 10 games. He faced the Lakers during that run and handed out five assists against them on Jan. 20. Even if he’s not 100%, Gordon should be able to reach this low prop line on Saturday night and deliver this plus-money prop line.
Darius Garland o18.5 Points (-119)
The Clippers are finishing their back-to-back by hosting the Kings in what should be a favorable matchup. Garland sat out on Friday for injury management purposes, but if he comes back on Saturday, this points prop bet feels like an awesome place to attack. If you want to be more aggressive and look at an alternate line, Garland’s 20+ points at +107 is another attractive option.
Garland missed six weeks with a toe injury, and while he was out, the Clippers acquired him in return for James Harden. Garland has played five games for the Clippers since returning on March 2. In his first two games back, Garland played under 25 minutes and had 12 points in each game against the Warriors and Pacers.
In each of his last three games, Garland scored 20+ points. He only needed 23 minutes in his most recent game to rack up 21 points against the Timberwolves on Wednesday. He has at least six assists in each of his last four games as well, but to keep this simple in my prop bets, I’m sticking with just his scoring.
Since the Clippers are in a very favorable matchup, they could opt to give some other players lighter workloads or rest them entirely. If that happens, Garland could help carry the load in their absence after getting his rest on Friday. Even if that isn’t the way the injury report plays out, Garland should be able to get over this prop line against the woeful Kings in his typical role.
Garland still may not be fully built up to his full minutes, but he has been scoring 20+ points regularly, so even at his current workload, the potential production is there to push him past this prop in Saturday night’s finale.