NBA First Basket will break down some of his favorite NBA plays of the day here, and will track all his bets in The Action Network app.
NBA First Basket Prop Pick: Nikola Vucevic, Zach LaVine
| Odds | Vucevic (+500) I LaVine (+900) |
| Time | 3:30 p.m. ET |
| Book | FanDuel |
The Washington Wizards take on the the Chicago Bulls on Sunday afternoon. Daniel Gafford (17% opening tip win rate) moves over to the center position for the injured Kristaps Porzingis and will face off against Nikola Vucevic (33% win rate) on the opening tip. Vucevic won both of his previous two tip-offs against Gafford last season, and this is one of the rare occasions where the Bulls should be favored to win the tip-off.
These two teams have played each other three times this season, with Ayo Dosunmu cashing the first basket in the first game and Zach LaVine scoring the first team basket for Chicago the last two games (and cashed first basket in one of those games).
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Defensively, the Wizards are generally weakest against centers, small forwards and power forwards on early possessions. With Porzingis out, Kuzma likely shifts to the power forward spot.
The Bulls have also shaken up their starting lineup recently, with newly acquired Patrick Beverley starting for Dosunmu and Alex Caruso starting for Patrick Williams.
Vucevic has been one of the hottest first-basket players recently, having scored the Bulls’ first team field goal in 11 of the last 17 games. He has cashed six first-basket bets during that timeframe as well.
I’ll be taking Vucevic and LaVine to score first this afternoon.
Pick: Nikola Vucevic First Basket +500 (risking 0.70 units | play down to +400) |
Pick: Zach LaVine First Basket +900 (risking 0.30 units | play down to +700) |