NBA Multi bet of the Weekend | May 25

The Western Conference Finals got off to something of a surprise start, with the Mavericks upsetting the Timberwolves in Minnesota to open up a 1-0 lead in their seven-game series. On Saturday, the home side will attempt to even things up in a game in which they have once again been dubbed as favourites by NBA betting sites. With just one game taking place over the course of the day, our weekend multi will be a same gamer, and will focus largely on player props. Take a look at it below. 

Saturday, 25th of May at 10.30am AEST, Target Center 

The Mavericks have found a nice little one-two punch at centre with Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford. Neither of them is a superstar but they are each capable enough at both ends of the floor, with Lively taking around 28 minutes a game and Gafford filling the roughly 20-odd leftover. Both are pretty consistent in their output but Gafford particularly so, but despite that, betting agencies have set his line below both what he is averaging for the season, and what he has been scoring with incredible regularity of late. For the season he averages 10.9 points, but his line is at just 7.5. Admittedly throughout the season he has averaged 26.5 minutes per game and now he’s playing anywhere from 18 to 25, but he’s still producing a similar number of points per game. In fact, the last time that Gafford failed to pass this line was a massive ten games ago, back in Game 4 of the Mavs’ First Round series against the Clippers. Since then he has scored at least 8 points in all nine games, averaging 10.78 points in that time. He will not likely surpass his line for this game by a huge number, but with most of his buckets coming right at the rim courtesy of either Luka Doncic or Kyrie Irving, he very rarely misses and all he needs to hit the over is four buckets. He has taken close to seven shots per game during this nine-game stretch of hitting this over, and if he gets close to that number again he will almost certainly hit at least four of them. This is a great value bet given his run of scoring at least eight points, and should be a solid way to kick off this multi. 

Saturday, 25th of May at 10.30am AEST, Target Center 

Jaden McDaniels has been an X-factor for the Timberwolves throughout the course of their playoff run, though that has largely been a product of his elite performance at the defensive end of the floor. The 23-year-old has developed into one of the best defenders in the league this year and has been a pivotal reason that his team has been the best defensive side in the NBA, and that has well and truly translated into the playoffs. But while that is where he makes his money, McDaniels is also more than capable of contributing in a number of ways at the offensive end of the floor, and for three consecutive games now that part of his game has been super productive. Having averaged just 10.5 points per game during the season, McDaniels has managed at least 21 points in three consecutive games. He’s been stroking it from three-point range, hitting 12 of his 18 shots from downtown in that time, but he’s also been making smart plays with ball in hand and getting to the rim with regularity – meaning he’s not purely relying on unsustainable shooting to get his points. McDaniels won’t continue to score 20 or more points per game forever, but there is no denying that he is feeling himself offensively at the moment, and with his line set at just 12.5 by betting sites, this is a great chance to add some value to our multi. Given he has scored 20 or more points in three consecutive games, he looks like a nice bet to get that again at long odds, but we’ll play it a little safer and look for him to just hit the 15 mark. 

Saturday, 25th of May at 10.30am AEST, Target Center 

Anthony Edwards is an absolute star and it brings no pleasure to bet against him having a big game, but all the numbers point to him failing to hit his points line in this game. It’s set at 28.5 points, which is 2.6 more than he has averaged throughout the course of the season and substantially below what he has been averaging of late. He has been terrific for a large part of the Timberwolves’ impressive playoffs run, particularly early, scoring 33 points or more in four of their first five postseason games. But since then, his scoring efficiency has dropped, and he has scored more than 27 points – below his points line – just one time in his last seven games. That was five games ago when he exploded for 44 points, and since then he has averaged just 20 points across four games, including only 16 and 19 in his last two. He hasn’t been particularly efficient, but he also has not taken all that many shots, taking 17 or less in most of his games. That is not a whole lot of shots to score nearly 30 points. Further making this a good addition to this multi is the fact that if McDaniels plays well again, as we need him to for the multi to hit, it will likely result in him taking a couple of shots off Edwards. The Timberwolves really need their star guard to be more efficient, but all of these scoring troubles don’t necessarily mean he hasn’t been valuable; in his past four games, he’s had seven or more assists three times, so he is finding ways to contribute. With his scoring woes there is every chance that he continues to try to get his teammates involved more rather than trying to do everything himself, and that should lead to him going under this points line for the seventh time in eight games.