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The Knicks hung on to see another day and that day is this Saturday. The Pacers, meanwhile, get a chance to close things out in the Eastern Conference at home. While we want to know who’ll come out on top, that’s not the bet we’re looking to in this column. Today, we’re looking at first bucket bets for May 31. Who is going to get the opening possession? Who is going to grab that first score? We’ve got the goods for you here.
We’ve run the data, we’ve looked at the trends – now, come check out our first bucket props for May 31.
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NBA First Bucket Props – May 31 2z586k
New York Knicks vs. Indiana Pacers 5r5f44
Tipoff – 8:00 pm EST
Gainbridge Fieldhouse – Indianapolis, IN
Broadcast – TNT
On the regular season, the Pacers were one of the very worst teams when it came to getting the first possession. They won under 30% of the tips, which put them as one of the only three teams in the league with metrics like that. Across the league, the tip winner took home 65.7% of all of the first buckets. As a result, it would be hard to see the Pacers getting many of the first buckets in this series. They both won the tip and scored first in Game 1. In the next four games, the Knicks took the first possession and got the first hoop. There is no reason to believe that will change here based on the metrics, so we’ll take the Knicks to get on the board first.
In addition to playing the Knicks to score first, if you’re getting greedy, you might be looking for an individual player. If I’m doing that, I’m looking no further than Karl-Anthony Towns. He’s been all over the early shots for the Knicks as of late. He’s taken one of the first three shots in three of the five games in this series. The part I like more is that his attempts are diverse and falling. Two of those three shots have come from three-point and fallen.
First Bucket Bet for May 31: Karl-Anthony Towns (+500)
If you’d like even more info to help make your first bucket bets for May 31, check out the NBA Gambling Podcast. They’re dropping episodes five days a week to make you the smartest guy/gal at the bar.
