Less than a second ago, NBA fans were concerned that the center position was dying. Now, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Sure, Karl-Anthony Towns, Domantas Sabonis, Joel Embiid, and the two men playing tonight — Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokić — aren’t your rim-running, post-bashing bigs of the 2000’s. But Towns, Wembanyama, and Jokić have been top-10 players in basketball through the first two months of the season.
Tonight, Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs (17-16) travel to Denver to take on Jokić’s Nuggets (19-13). Wembanyama’s meteoric rise has continued after his Rookie of the Year campaign, as he’s averaging 25.6 points, 10.0 rebounds, and a league-leading 3.9 blocks per game. Tonight will mark the first time this season that Wembanyama and Jokić have matched up.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, The Spurs are 6.5-point underdogs and the point total is set to 237.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bets centered around Wembanyama.
Best Victor Wembanyama Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Victor Wembanyama O31.5 Points + Assists (-105)
After a slow start to the season, Denver has turned it around recently, winning eight of its last 11 games and climbing all the way to fourth place in the Western Conference. But the Nuggets still have structural flaws; their bench isn’t deep enough and their defense isn’t good enough. Denver allows the seventh-most points and most assists per game to opposing teams, which is extremely concerning for a championship contender rostering the best player in the world.
It’s also a bad recipe for slowing down Wembanyama, who’s one of the most in-form players in the world. In his last 10 games, Wembanyama has only been held under 20 points once — a 19-point outing against the Brooklyn Nets in which he missed some time with an injury and still shot 50% from the field and recorded six blocks — and averaged nearly 30 points and five blocks per game on 49-39-90 shooting splits. He’s also demonstrated improved passing chops, having recorded 11 games this season with five or more assists.
Victor Wembanyama: First SA Spurs Three Point Field Goal Scorer (+225)
Perhaps most notable about Wembanyama’s sophomore season is his penchant for firing away from deep; at seven-foot-three, he has as more career three-pointers made (221) than dunks (220). This season, he ranks 11th in the league in three-point attempts, averaging 9.4 attempts per game from beyond the arc. All told, he accounts for 31.6% of San Antonio’s three-point attempts and 32.1% of its three-point makes while he is on the floor.
He has also had a few first-quarter outbursts in recent weeks, even if he ranks just 29th in first-quarter scoring overall, with 5.8 points per game. In his most recent game, a blowout win over the LA Clippers, Wembanyama dropped 17 points in just seven minutes of play in the first quarter, making the Spurs’ first three-pointer in that game. He also had 10 points in the first quarter of his Christmas Day outburst against the New York Knicks, although Chris Paul made San Antonio’s first three in that game after Wembanyama missed his first two attempts.
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All odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook, lines and odds subject to change.
I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skills and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
