Some people like to sweat out a bet for 48 hard minutes – others like immediate satisfaction. Count us as being in the latter, which is why we like to get down with NBA first scorer props. And we’ve decided to pass that knowledge on to you with our first scorer bets for December 21. Go here for NBA Championship odds.
Of course, there are plenty out there taking blind guesses at this stuff. It’s easy to pick the most popular player or look at what happened in the last game. However, we spent the time pouring through the analytics to make sure that we give you the best odds to stay in the green on these first scorer props for December 21.
Come check out what we have cooked up for this slate of games.
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NBA First Scorer Props – December 21
Utah Jazz vs. Brooklyn Nets
Tipoff – 7:30 pm EST
Barclays Center – Brooklyn, NY
Broadcast – NBA TV
The Nets have been better on the tip since Nic Claxton came back into the mix. They’re a bottom five team in the league on the jump overall, but you certainly can’t blame Claxton’s 53.9% success rate. However, that’s still not enough for me to like him over Walker Kessler on the jump here. Kessler is grabbing the first possession for his team 75.0% of the time this year. With the tip winner currently getting 66.1% of the first buckets this year, and the Jazz having a 11.5% better finish rate on those first scores, you have to head to Utah for a pick here.
For some reasons, the books have John Collins as the fourth most likely Jazz to score the first point on Saturday. All in the starting line except for Collin Sexton have more likely odds that him – which is crazy given the recent action. Collins has taken the first shot for the Jazz in back-to-back games. Perhaps that’s because he doesn’t have any first scores on the year. He did manage seven of them last year. With that and the current trends in play, I’d say this is a good time for a first one.
First Scorer Bet for December 21: John Collins (+700)
Boston Celtics vs. Chicago Bulls
Tipoff – 8:00 pm EST
United Center – Chicago, IL
Broadcast – NBA TV
In game one of this home-and-home, the Celtics won the tip. No surprise there as the Bulls have won just two of the 27 tips that they’ve taken this year (7.4% success rate). However, the Bulls got a stop and managed to score a bucket first courtesy of Patrick Williams. That was just the fifth time the Bulls have scored first this year, which has them at the fewest in the NBA. With the Celtics being a slightly below average team in these metrics, it would be crazy to see the Bulls get two in a row on them. As a result, we’re going with someone from Boston on this one.
In the aforementioned first game of this two game set, Kristaps Porzingis took the first shot of the game. He did the same the game before for the Celtics and took the second shot two games prior. Since coming back from injury they seem intent on trying to get him going right from the start of every game. Even though these odds come in a bit on the chalky side, I still think there’s value to be had in a play on the Celtics big man here.
First Scorer Bet for December 21: Kristaps Porzingis (+500)
If you’d like even more info to help make your first scorer bets for December 21, check out the NBA Gambling Podcast. They’re dropping episodes five days a week to make you the smartest guy/gal at the bar.
