Best NBA Player Props & Picks: Saturday, April 16th

Today, the official NBA Playoffs start, and I have two winning player props to share:

Everybody loves weekends in April, especially sports fanatics. In terms of sports betting, there are plenty of player props and games to choose from today. This is the time of the year when you have sports on TV all day, and no one is going to blame you for not moving from the couch. The absolute best thing about playoff basketball is the fact that player props are always offered early in the morning. For the most part, we don't have to wait on injury reports to lock in our player props because we have a good idea of who is going to play a lot of minutes.

Today, there are two player props that I can't help but to pull the trigger on:

Player Prop #1: Ja Morant over 28.5 Points -115

After taking a short injury management hiatus, the exciting, high-flying Ja Morant returns to the Grizzlies lineup today. The Memphis Grizzlies haven't won a playoff series since the 2016 season, but they have the young talent to take care of the Timberwolves in this series, and that all starts with their star, Ja Morant. When you take a player's points prop, the main thing to focus on is the volume and usage they see in their games. When you look at Morant, you'll see that he has fantastic volume as he takes about 21 shots per game this season. Another statistic that will make you feel good about this player prop is his usage rate. Sitting with a usage rate of 33%, Ja Morant ranks fifth among qualified players, which is only behind Joel Embiid, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Trae Young. Patrick Beverley will most likely draw the defensive assignment of Ja Morant in this series, and there is plenty of potential there for Beverley to getting into foul trouble. The volume and usage is plenty for Ja Morant to get over on his point prop.

Player Prop #2: Reggie Bullock over 2.5 Three Pointers - 135

This player prop doesn't have the best value, but I'm taking it at -135 in order to avoid the line moving up to 3.5. The Jazz have the potential to blow the Mavericks out tonight leading to fewer minutes for the starters, which hurts the chances at hitting their player props. The Dallas Mavericks will be without Luka Doncic tonight as they made the questionable decision to let him play in the season finale, which led to him injuring his calf. Although the Jazz are one of the best teams in the league in terms of defending against threes, Reggie Bullock should have plenty of opportunities to get over this line. On the season, Bullock has gone over 2.5 three-pointers in two out of three games against the Jazz, where he made seven shots from deep in their most recent game. With Luka not playing, that is about 25 shots that are going to be dispersed among the rest of the squad. I see the Mavs trailing for a lot of this game, which would force them to shoot their way back into it. With Bullock being their best spot-up shooter, he is a great target for a three-point player prop.