After failing to book their trip to the Finals at home in Game 4, the Dallas Mavericks head up to Minneapolis to face the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of the 2024 Western Conference Finals. While the Mavericks wouldn’t necessarily mind another game in front of their home crowd, they’d rather end this series and secure their spot in the Finals. Dallas won both games in Minnesota earlier in this series, so there’s reason for the Mavericks to be confident heading into this game.
Here’s a look at some of our favorite Mavericks player prop bets to target for Game 5 Thursday, with odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook.
Kyrie Irving over 22.5 points (-122)
Irving had 30 points in Game 1 against Minnesota, and has been on an interesting pattern in this series of alternating big scoring games with somewhat mundane efforts. He had a rare dud in a closeout game Tuesday, tallying just 16 points on 6-18 shooting. It was his first loss in a closeout game in his career. I think Irving continues this pattern of play with a big outing in Game 5 and does his best to help the Mavericks try to win the series.
Luka Doncic under 8.5 assists (-112)
Doncic has followed a similar pattern to Irving’s, although in his case that trend would lead to the under hitting. The star guard logged double-digit assists in Games 2 and 4, but failed to go over this line in Games 1 and 3. Some of that has to be do with teammates missing shots, but Doncic is likely to remain aggressive as a scorer tonight. He’s averaging 22.5 shots per game and while he can easily clear this assist line, I like this trend to also hold and will back the under Thursday.
Daniel Gafford over 6.5 rebounds (-118)
Even if Dereck Lively is able to suit up for Game 5, it’s hard to know what his workload will be. Gafford pulled down eight rebounds in Game 4 despite Doncic going for 15 boards, so there’s plenty of opportunities for the Dallas big man. He logged nine boards in Game 1 before falling off a bit in Games 2 and 3, only to bounce back thanks to extended minutes in Game 4. Even if he doesn’t see as much playing time as he did in Game 4, I like Gafford to go over this mark as the Mavericks try to reclaim control of the paint tonight.