NBA Player Props and Best Bets for Thursday, April 25

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The Miami Heat shocked the Boston Celtics on the road as 15-point underdogs to level the series at 1-1, while the Oklahoma City dominated the New Orleans Pelicans to take a 2-0 series lead heading to the bayou on Saturday.

Here are our favorite NBA player prop picks for the playoffs on Thursday.

Odds from FanDuel Sportsbook. Use our FanDuel promo code for $150 in bonus bets.

Paolo Banchero Over 5.5 Assists (+104) at FanDuel

Banchero has yet to hit this total one time in the Orlando Magic’s first-round series with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but that isn’t necessarily his fault. Assists are dependent upon teammates making shots, and the Magic are shooting just 34.3 percent from the floor in the postseason—plus, they’d be even worse if Banchero wasn’t at 48.6 percent on his attempts.

The Magic were one of just two playoff teams in the Eastern Conference with a losing record on the road. They should be able to knock down a larger percentage of their looks now that they’re back home for Game Three, especially since they outscored opponents by the fifth-highest margin in their building.

Bet on Paolo Banchero at FanDuel

Franz Wagner Under 6.5 Rebounds (-146) at FanDuel

Wagner was great on the boards to start the series and grabbed seven rebounds in each of the first two games. However, that’s not his usual M.O., as he averaged 5.3 rebounds per game during the regular season and only hit over one time in the final 12 games of the regular season.

One reason for Wagner’s jump in activity is how poorly the Magic have shot the ball. With any sort of luck, he and his teammates will make more open looks and will not force him to be as involved in the rebounding game as he has been up to this point in the series.

Bet on Franz Wagner at FanDuel

Joel Embiid Under 31.5 points (-106) at FanDuel

Embiid is not healthy—not even close. Yet despite that the reigning MVP averaged exactly 31.5 points in the first two games of a series against the New York Knicks he claimed the Philadelphia 76ers should be leading 2-0. Despite him proving he can still score the ball while severely limited by his health, we still have concerns.

Embiid has been relegated to almost exclusively a jump-shooter as he’s either too afraid or his knee is too weak to go bang in the post (part of why his rebounding has also declined significantly). He found great success with his jump shot ever since the fourth quarter of Game One, but it’s a tall ask for him to maintain that without being able to mix in his usual work in the post.

Bet on Joel Embiid at FanDuel

Josh Hart Over 1.5 Threes (+106) at FanDuel

Hart was drafted into the NBA to be a three-and-D specialist. He evolved into something entirely different with the New York Knicks and shot just 31 percent on 3.2 attempts per game during the regular season but made four triples in each of his first two playoff games, averaging out to 53.3 percent on these attempts.

Hart’s confidence noticeably improved as he is now taking off-balance and pull-up transition threes. The 76ers have made it clear that their defensive strategy is to sag off of the 29-year-old and give him all of the space he wants, and he has made them pay thus far.

Bet on Josh Hart at FanDuel

LeBron James Over 25.5 Points (-111)

It feels as if the Los Angeles Lakers will never beat the Denver Nuggets again, seeing as they lost all 10 of their most recent encounters. That’s through no fault of LeBron, who was excellent in the Western Conference Finals a year ago and scored 27 and 26 points on 54.3 percent shooting in this series.

Teams that go down 0-2 in the first round of the playoffs go on to win the series less than seven percent of the time. With that ominous precedent looming large, we expect to see LeBron dominate the ball and take as many shots as he can to try to will his team to victory, no matter how unlikely that seems.

Bet on LeBron James at FanDuel

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