Handicapping the NBA: Friday Picks

Handicapping the NBA: Friday Picks

This article is part of our NBA Picks series.

Alex Barutha: Julius Randle over 38.5 Pts + Reb + Ast (-118) at Washington -- FanDuel, 2:00 PM CT

The Wizards have taken over as the most porous defense in the NBA, allowing 120.9 points per game. Randle is the hub of the Knicks' offense, so he's the obvious choice in terms of whose P+R+A prop to target. The Knicks are expected to score 110 points in this game, and when New York scores between 95-115 points, Randle averages 23.2 points, 10.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists (40 P+R+A). That's not a significant margin over his prop, but it's worth noting that the Wizards have an extreme lack of athletic, sizeable frontcourt defenders, so Randle should be able to be a bully all night.

Nick Whalen: Anthony Edwards OVER 2.5 assists (+135) at Charlotte -- DraftKings Sportsbook

This is a large slate, so admittedly we're digging pretty deep here, but this is a good number for a player who's handed out at least four assists in three of his last four games. No one is mistaking Edwards for John Stockton, but he's been much more consistent and confident since entering the starting lineup eight games ago, averaging 15.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists in that span. It's not the greatest metric, but the Hornets allow more assists (28.0 per game) than any other team in the league, entering Friday. Charlotte also leads the league in opponents' assist percentage. Opponents are generating assists on 56.7 percent of two-point field goals and 89.8 percent of three-point field goals. For reference, the league averages in those categories are 50.1 percent and 82.6 percent, respectively. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Alex Barutha
Alex is RotoWire's Chief NBA Editor. He writes articles about daily fantasy, year-long fantasy and sports betting. You can hear him on the RotoWire NBA Podcast, Sirius XM, VSiN and other platforms. He firmly believes Robert Covington is the most underrated fantasy player of the past decade.
Nick Whalen
Now in his 10th year with the company, Nick is RotoWire's Senior Media Analyst, a position he took on after several years as the Head of Basketball Content. A multi-time FSGA and FSWA award winner, Nick co-hosts RotoWire's flagship show on Sirius XM Fantasy alongside Jeff Erickson, as well as The RotoWire NBA Show on Sirius XM NBA with Alex Barutha. He also co-hosts RotoWire's Football and Basketball podcasts. You can catch Nick's NBA and NFL analysis on VSiN and DraftKings, as well as RotoWire's various social and video channels. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @wha1en.
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