The Los Angeles Lakers need to win Game 3 against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night, and they are looking to keep a perfect home playoff record going in the process.
Los Angeles has hung tough in the first two games of this series, and there's one glaring change that needs to be made: Less D'Angelo Russell minutes.
I'll explain why and how that influences the prop market in Game 3 below:
Nuggets vs. Lakers best NBA prop bets
- D'Angelo Russell UNDER 13.5 Points
- Bruce Brown OVER 0.5 3-Pointers Made
D'Angelo Russell UNDER 13.5 Points
The Lakers have struggled mightily with Russell on the floor in this series, ging minus-41 in his 59 minutes while playing +30 ball when he sits.
That's a massive gap.
If Darvin Ham truly wants to win this series, he's going to need to play Dennis Schroder, Rui Hachimura and others over Russell, leading me to taking the UNDER on the guard's points in Game 3.
Russell is just 7-for-19 from the field in this series, scoring eight and 10 points in his two games.
This number is too high for a player who may see less minutes in Game 3 than he has all series.
Bruce Brown OVER 0.5 3-Pointers Made
Bruce Brown continues to knock down shots from deep for Denver, hitting a 3-pointer in four straight and five of his last six playoff games.
The biggest issue for Brown in this prop is volume, but he's taken four shots from deep in three of his last four games.
If he sticks around that usage, he's shot well enough (35.8 percent from 3 this season) for bettors to expect him to knock down one. I'll keep riding with this Brown prop as long as its set at 0.5.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
