Bet On a Big Game From this Oklahoma City Thunder Player

The Oklahoma City Thunder will host the New York Knicks tonight and a certain Thunder player’s points and assists prop stood out to me while looking through the board. We’ll go over who that player is and why this bet has a lot of value as well as a preview of the game.

Player Prop: Josh Giddey Over 21.5 Points + Assists (-122)

In the last 10 games the Thunder have played Josh Giddey has been performing at a very high level on the offensive end. The Thunder point guard enters tonight fresh off a double-double with 20 points and 11 assists in his last game and the last time Giddey played the Knicks he recorded a triple-double.

The Knicks have been one of the worst defensive teams in the league this season and allow the third most assists per game with an average of 27.3 per game. On top of that New York allowed OKC to score 145 points just one week ago.

Giddey is averaging 21 points + assists per game in his last ten games and I expect him to go over his average tonight. Recently Giddey has been taking a lot more shot attempts as he seems to be fully recovered from his injury. The Thunder are third in the NBA in pace so they put up a lot of field goal attempts, only helping Giddey’s chance to score and distribute a ton throughout the game.

New York won’t be trying to slow the pace tonight either as they are tenth in the league in that category, so there is a good chance we see a similar style of game we saw the first time these teams played.

Given the circumstances, I think this bet has a lot of value and Giddey has the potential to wreak havoc all over the court tonight.

Game Preview

As far as the game goes the Knicks enter tonight off two straight losses and as +2.5 point underdogs. Offensively the Knicks struggled in those losses and lacked bench scoring, primarily just relying on Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle. We’ll see if they can have the offensive outburst they did the last time they squared off with the Thunder.

Despite their high level of scoring recently the Thunder defense could certainly be a team to help the Knicks' offense get back on track. The Thunder defense is allowing 116.8 points per game and has been getting dominated when it comes to rebounding. The length of the Thunder can create a lot of turnovers despite the lackluster defensive numbers so it’ll be a good match-up to watch between them and a point guard like Jalen Brunson who does a good job of limiting turnovers.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been playing at an all-star caliber level averaging 31.1 ppg and 5.93 assists, so he poses a dangerous threat to keep the Knicks' losing streak going.