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 bucket props. And we’ve decided to pass that knowledge on to you with our first bucket bets for April 9. 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 bucket props for April 9.
Come check out what we have cooked up for this slate of games.
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NBA First Bucket Props – April 9
Portland Trail Blazers vs. Utah Jazz
Tipoff – 9:00 pm EST
Delta Center – Salt Lake City, UT
Broadcast – NBA TV
The Blazers are are increasingly easy team to fade down the stretch. With resting players and injuries, they’ve had to rely on Donovan Clingan to take their jumps. He’s winning just 35.3% on the year, which puts them at a real disadvantage. That’s even with the Jazz’s starting center, Walker Kessler, out of the game. They’ll go with Kyle Filipowski in the circle to start. He’s just a whisker below league average and with tip winners getting 65.7% of first buckets on the year, that’s enough to back the Jazz in this one.
If you’re looking to get greedy this late in the season and pick an individual player, you’re going to want to go a bit down ballot. ‘Tis the season for reserves getting starts with more burn and shots going to those players. One player that has benefitted from that on Utah has been Brice Sensabaugh. He’s taken one of the first three shots in three straight games that Walker Kessler did not start in. That includes the first shot two games ago. With Kessler out again, let’s ride with the hot hand.
First Bucket Bet for April 9: Brice Sensabaugh (TBD)
Miami Heat vs. Chiacgo Bulls
Tipoff – 10:00 pm EST
Footprint Center – Phoenix, AZ
Broadcast – TNT
While most teams are resting their starters, this is a game where you can count on teams going hard. Both have clinches a spot in the play-in, but could make the 7/8 matchup with a good run at the end of the season. As a result, expect the best from both teams here.
Unluckily for the Bulls, the best typically means a pretty game start game in terms of winning the tip. Nobody in the league has lost more tips this year that Nikola Vucevic (58). He’ll either face Kel’el Ware or Bam Adebayo on the tip. The former has a 50.0% win rate on this tips, which is much better than Vucevic. The latter is posting an impressive 73.3% win rate – which would make a tip win almost a certainty. With that in hand, we’ll back the Heat.
The two bigs have been the most active in the first three shots over the last three games. If you take all of those shots, the two of them make up for 66.7% of all of those shots. Kel’el Ware has been a touch more active in the early game in the last couple. Combine that with his likely higher odds when they post in the morning, and he’ll be our play here.
First Bucket Bet for April 9: Kel’el Ware (TBD)
If you’d like even more info to help make your first bucket bets for April 9, check out the NBA Gambling Podcast. They’re dropping episodes five days a week to make you the smartest guy/gal at the bar.
