The Boston Celtics will host the New York Knicks in TD Garden tonight. After making an aggressive offseason move to get Jalen Brunson, the Knicks find themselves back in the playoff hunt — but nine games behind the Celtics for the Eastern Conference lead. Bettors looking to score some value on Thursday’s action on TNT should tail this Knicks-Celtics NBA player prop at OddsShopper’s tools for other sharp plays.
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Best Knicks-Celtics NBA Player Prop | Al Horford
Al Horford Prop O/U 1.5 3-Pointers
The Boston Celtics enter Thursday’s contest somewhat shorthanded: starting point guard Marcus Smart is out with a right ankle sprain. Smart trails most of his teammates in usage rate (16.9%) but gets enough action for his absence to give the rest of Boston’s roster a small boost in volume. That slight uptick — combined with a soft matchup — should help Al Horford easily cash his 3-point prop tonight.
The New York Knicks cannot defend the perimeter, especially the wing. Although they play at the fourth-slowest pace and rank a respectable 15th in defensive rating, they have allowed the fifth-most corner 3s per game (3.9). They have also given up the third-most made 3s per game to opposing power forwards (2.6). Horford missed Boston’s last game against the Knicks, but the Celtics shot a combined 27-for-51 from deep without him.
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Horford benefits from New York’s defensive vulnerabilities. The veteran big man slots into the starting lineup at power forward when Robert Williams III plays. He also leads the team in corner 3s made (0.9) and attempted (1.9) per game. Horford has banged in at least a pair of triples in 24 of his 38 appearances, good for a raw hit rate of 63% that far outpaces his implied odds to sur this total, 56.5%. Horford has also sunk at least three triples in 20.8% of his starts.
The books are uniformly listing Horford at -130 or worse to go over this number. Pinnacle, a sharp book, has the over priced all the way up at -135. Bettors should head to FanDuel Sportsbook for the best deal — and to tease this play up by an extra make. Readers who are new to FanDuel can score $150 in bonus bets after placing just a $5 wager! If you’re in Ohio, you can get an extra $50 with this link instead!
Best NBA Knicks-Celtics Player Prop: Al Horford 2+ 3-Pointers (-130 for 0.65 Unit) at FanDuel
Best NBA Knicks-Celtics Ladder Bet: Al Horford 3+ 3-Pointers (+260 for 0.25 Unit) at FanDuel
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