NBA Best Bets Today: Free Picks for New Year's Day

Alex Barutha hands out his favorite player props for Monday's New Year's Day NBA slate.
NBA Best Bets Today: Free Picks for New Year's Day
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Best Bets

Tyrese Haliburton over 25.5 points (-115) at Bucks

FanDuel, 3:20 PM CT

Alex Barutha: Haliburton has gone over this mark in 12 of his 28 appearances, and twice in three regular-season games against Milwaukee this season. The Bucks allow the most points to pick and roll ballhandlers (22.6), while Haliburton has scored 11.0 of his 24.6 PPG as a P&R ballhandler. This is also expected to be one of the highest-scoring games of the year, with the over/under sitting at 261.0 points.

Damian Lillard over 25.5 points (-105) vs. Pacers

BetMGM, 3:24 PM CT

Alex Barutha: The logic for taking Lillard's over is the exact same as Haliburton's. The Pacers allow the second-most points to pick-and-roll ballhandlers (22.1), and Lillard scores 10.6 of his 25.9 PPG as a P&R ballhandler. He's only averaging 22.5 PPG in two regular-season appearances against Indiana this season, but I'll lean on the process here with such a talented scorer in a great situation.

Fred VanVleet over 19.5 points (-112) vs. Pistons

FanDuel, 3:28 PM CT

Alex Barutha: Congrats to the Pistons on winning a basketball game, but they're still bad, and I'm still targeting their backcourt defense. They allow the third-most points to pick-and-roll ballhandlers (21.4), and VanVleet scores 40.2% of his points in that playtype. FVV has gone for 20+ points in 11 of his 29 appearances.

Michael Porter Jr. over 2.5 threes (-130) vs. Hornets

FanDuel, 3:42 PM CT

Alex Barutha: Porter has been inconsistent lately, averaging only 13.2 PPG on 41/48/75 shooting in 29.8 minutes, but he's still launched 6.2 threes per game during this stretch. This is an excellent opportunity for him, as 36.7% of his points come as spot-up makes, and the Hornets are allowing the third-most points off spot-ups in the NBA (33.1). Last time these teams played, Porter went 5-for-8 from distance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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.
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