ZT details his best player prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook for Monday’s matchup between the Bucks and the Hawks.
The NBA starts off its all-day celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a matinee matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Atlanta Hawks in King’s home city of Atlanta. It should be a great way to start an awesome day jam-packed with hoops to celebrate. Let’s start off this Monday with some great player prop bets to consider this Monday, with tip-off of this game at a nice and early 1:00 p.m. ET.
In the bigger picture, the hometown Hawks are 2.5-point home favorites, with the point total set at 231.5 on DraftKings Sportsbook.
The two teams are next to each other in the Eastern Conference standings with the Hawks at 20-24 in the No. 10 spot, which is the final spot in the Play-In Tournament, and the Bucks at 17-24 in the No. 11 spot. Both teams have lost three straight games and are desperately looking to get back in the win column as they try to figure out how to make a push for the playoffs and also build for the future. The Bucks come into this matchup mostly healthy, while the Hawks listed Dyson Daniels as questionable and Kristaps Porzingis and Zaccharie Risacher as out.
This will be the first of three regular-season matchups between these teams, so let’s dive into the matchup and pick out the best player prop bets to attack this Monday afternoon.
Bucks vs. Hawks Best Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Jalen Johnson under 9.5 rebounds (+107)
The Hawks traded Trae Young and seem ready to enter the next phase of their rebuild with Jalen Johnson carrying the load. It’s easy to see why, as the 24-year-old has blossomed into a true fantasy star this season, stuffing the stat sheet on a nightly basis.
While I’m a huge fan of Johnson overall, this prop line on Monday seems very high against the Bucks. Milwaukee has pretty strong interior defense and rebounding with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Myles Turner, and Johnson has been typically coming in under this number lately.
In his 40 games this season, Johnson is averaging 10.1 rebounds per contest, and he’s only averaging 9.4 rebounds in his 16 home games. He’s come in under this prop line in four of his last six games with his two “overs” squeaking past with 11 rebounds.
Zooming out, he has been under this prop line in eight of his last 13 games, and his season average is a little inflated from a 10-game stretch in December when he was carrying more responsibilities on the glass. Now that he’s the go-to on offense, he leaves Onyeka Okongwu to do most of the work rebounding, and even if he has a big game, he could come in under this rebounds prop line.
Ryan Rollins 6+ rebounds (+138)
We’ll stay in the rebound market for the second player prop bet in this game, and we’ll jump to the other side of the matchup and take this alternate rebounds from Ryan Rollins.
Rollins has six or seven rebounds in six straight games and has gone over this prop line in nine of his last 12 contests.
With Kevin Porter Jr. and Giannis healthy, Rollins has cooled off in the scoring categories, but he continues to get good minutes and stuff the stat sheet. He typically contributes good non-scoring numbers and his recent surge on the boards makes this a great plus-money play Monday afternoon.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker over 3.5 Assists (+114)
Another strong plus-money option that makes sense on Monday is the over on Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s assists. NAW has started each of the last 11 games for the Hawks and has averaged 4.1 assists in 33.4 minutes per game over that stretch.
Alexander-Walker had seven and six assists in his last two games against the Trail Blazers and Celtics, going well over this prop even though his team come up short of getting a win. He has gone over this prop five times in his last 11 games and has at least three assists in 10 of those 11 games.
Since he has been right around this number so regularly even with his team’s inconsistency, he should have a good chance to go over this prop on Monday afternoon in a favorable matchup against the Bucks, who allow the third-most fantasy points per game to shooting guards this season.
If Daniels is out, Walker has an even better chance of going over this prop line, but even if he returns, I still like the over.
Bonus Parlay Pick: Kevin Porter Jr. over 1.5 steals (-137)
If you’re looking to build an SGP (Same Game Parlay) to start the day or an SGPx, the over on KPJ’s steals is a nice addition to bring the four picks in this post to a spicy +1600, as you can see below.
Porter has averaged 2.2 steals per game this season and had multiple steals in five of six games before getting no steals last Thursday, when he had a disastrous scoreless outing. He should bounce back and be able to snag two thefts in this matchup, since the Hawks allow the second-most steals per game to shooting guards in the NBA.
