Portland Trail Blazers vs. San Antonio Spurs

Scoot Henderson was injured for the majority of the season, but has been a difference-maker for Portland since he entered the lineup in February. After ramping up for a couple of months, Henderson has clearly been playoff-ready, and burst onto the scene in this series against the Spurs. He exceeded his points prop in the first three games of the series with plenty of margin, finishing with point totals of 18, 31, and 21.

However, Game 4 was a disaster for Scoot, who had a cold shooting start and then got into foul trouble. He finished the game scoreless, but I believe that gives up a buy-low opportunity in a game where the Blazers are playing for their season. After playing less than 25 minutes per game in the regular season, Henderson is averaging 32 minutes in the playoffs. That uptick should continue to help his scoring. Scoot dropped 20 points against the Spurs the only time he faced them in the regular season, giving me more confidence in writing off Game 4 as a fluke. I’ll take the discount on Henderson’s points prop in Game 5.

NBA Pick: Scoot Henderson 15+ Points (+110)

Another member of the Blazers seeing his role increase in the postseason is Jrue Holiday. The veteran guard played 29.4 minutes per game during the regular season, which we’ve seen ramp up significantly in the playoffs — 38.3 minutes per game. Such a large boost in playing time obviously results in a statistical increase, and I’m not sure the prop market has caught up yet.

Holiday is averaging 18.5 points, 7.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds in this series, going 3-1 to the combo props of his P/R/A and just R/A. With the season on the line, I’ll bundle them all together and say we get a strong effort from Holiday, who was brought to Portland for his playoff experience on a young team.

NBA Pick: Jrue Holiday OVER 27.5 P/R/A (-125)