NBA player props Friday: Picks for Zach Lavine, Mikal Bridges on Oct. 25

The Bulls head to Milwaukee for the second game of their season, and face an incredibly weak perimeter defense. LaVine can attack, shoot, and finish creatively at the rim around Giannis and Lopez.

We also saw how fast the pace was for the Bucks in Game 1. They are going to make the Bulls play their style.

I really like the Over and Bulls ML as an outright long shot, and a very reasonable prop that should be a full point higher is a strong first play to add to my card.

Pacers vs. Knicks Player Props: Don’t Worry About Mikal Bridges

If you are in the camp of Bridges is broken, then skip this one.

Until I hear about an injury, I will continue to think it’s an overrated early season narrative. His usage rate is fantastic, as he just played 35 minutes in a blowout and still scored 16 points despite missing some 3-pointers badly.

This game is going to be another transition contest, the total is six points higher than the closing line for Celtics–Knicks, so we should expect even more scoring in this one, and that includes Bridges too.

Suns vs. Lakers Player Props: Fade Jusuf Nurkic

The Lakers/Suns total has dipped from 229 to 225.5 in the last few hours. It was happening fast! I think this shows a large reduction of pace on the horizon for this game.

I also think Nurkic is primed for foul trouble against both Anthony Davis and LeBron James. I looked at a few different lines such as points, PRA, or just rebounds to back Nurkic’s under, and the rebound angle provided the highest single number (scoring was 8.5 points), with also the least amount of juice, leading me to a market-read and numbers approach that land on rebounds as the prop to play.