On Sunday, the Raptors won their first game without Scottie Barnes with a 108-103 victory over the Hornets. With the ball in his hands more, Immanuel Quickly set the table and racked up a bunch of assists. He will look to have another strong game against the Pelicans on Tuesday night.
The Rockets return home after a three-game road trip to take on the Spurs. Interestingly enough, their past five games came against the Thunder and Suns. In that span, Jabari Smith Jr. has been dominant on the glass and piled up double-doubles. He may get another tonight.
Meanwhile in the nightcap, the Suns will visit the Nuggets on TNT. The Suns have lost their last two games and will be without Devin Booker for the next week or so. In the meantime, that means there is value on Bradley Beal.
Find NBA player props and predictions for tonight below.
NBA Player Props Tonight
Without Scottie Barnes on Sunday, the Raptors needed someone to step up and replace his playmaking. He averages 6.1 assists per game and has averaged 7.4 dimes over the past month. Against the Hornets, Immanuel Quickley rose to the occasion with 11 assists. However, Quickley also had nine and 11 assists in the previous two games against the Mavericks and Warriors when Barnes was on the floor.
Tonight he faces the Pelicans, who are certainly a better defensive team than the Hornets, but they are generous in terms of assists. They are 19th in assists allowed this season and also 26th in assists allowed to point guards over the past 15 games.
In that span, they allowed 15 assists to Tyus Jones, and Tyrese Haliburton and T.J. McConnell combined for 22 assists for the Pacers against the Pelicans last Wednesday. Ayo Dosunmu and Jordan Poole each also smashed a line of 3.5 assists by recording eight and six assists, respectively.
New Orleans is also 24th in 3s allowed per game. That will set up Quickley to get assists to Gary Trent Jr. and Kelly Olynyk on the perimeter and R.J. Barrett slashing to the basket.
Tonight, we just need eight assists from Quickley, but he has easily surpassed that over the past two games. Quickley is +290 for 10 assists on FanDuel and +290 for a double-double on DraftKings. Additionally, he's stopped just short of 12 assists in the last two games. If he breaks through tonight, that will cash at +1000 odds on FanDuel.
Jabari Smith Jr. grabbed just five rebounds in his last game against the Suns, but they allow the fourth-fewest rebounds per game. That makes it even more impressive that Smith had 16 rebounds in his previous two games against them. Additionally, Smith is averaging 10.9 rebounds per game over his last 10 games and has hit this line in seven of them.
Tonight he faces the Spurs, who are 28th in rebounds allowed this season. In two games against the Spurs this season, Smith grabbed nine in the first meeting, surpassing his line of 8.5 boards at the time, and he snagged 12 rebounds in the second. There may be even more rebounds available for him if Victor Wembyanama is out. Wembyanama is listed as questionable with a shoulder injury.
However, Smith would probably prefer to see Wembyanama on the floor after Wembyanama appeared happy that the Rockets didn't get the No. 1 pick last May. If he does play, the Spurs will be more competitive, and that also means Smith will play more minutes.
As injuries have piled up for the Rockets, Smith has carried a heavier workload. He is averaging 36 minutes per game over his last 10 and has played 33 or more minutes in nine of those games.
When Smith plays 30 minutes or more, his hit rate (38% to 53%) increases by 15%. If he plays 30 minutes tonight, he should get 10 rebounds with this matchup. He is also +210 for 12 rebounds, +470 for 14 rebounds and +950 for 16 rebounds on FanDuel. He has pulled down 16 rebounds in three of his past five games.
For his career, Bradley Beal is averaging 22 points per game. He also averaged at least 23 per game in his final seven seasons in Washington. The Suns have been waiting to get that version of Beal on the floor this season as he has played just 32 games. However, he is averaging 22.2 points over his past seven games and has hit his line in four of them.
Without Devin Booker on Sunday night, Beal had 31 points. He had the ball in his hands a lot more and went 10-for-14 from the field, 3-for-5 from 3, and 8-for-10 on free throws. Without Booker, the Suns will need that kind of effort from Booker again. They are currently 9.5-point underdogs to the Nuggets tonight.
To pull off an upset, the Suns will likely need at least 25-30 points from both Beal and Kevin Durant. However, they may be in luck. In the past four games that Beal went over this line, he has averaged 32.2 points per game. He also has played 33 minutes or more in all of those games, which he will likely have to do again tonight, barring a blowout. On FanDuel, Beal is +310 for 25 points and +950 for 30 points.
