You’d be forgiven if you hadn’t heard of anybody in the Utah Jazz’s likely starting lineup for today’s 8 p.m. ET clash against the New Orleans Pelicans: Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, Walker Kessler, Keyonte George, Cody Williams, and Isaiah Collier. With Jordan Clarkson, John Collins, Lauri Markkanen, and Collin Sexton all sidelined, the Jazz are stretched quite thin.
But at the end of day, somebody has to score, and recently, that somebody has been former 16th overall pick Keyonte George. George has scored 26 points in each of his last two games, and is averaging 16.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game this season. His shooting splits are…well…not great (40-36-79), but that’s expected from a young point guard tasked with carrying the offensive load on a lottery-bound team.
The Pelicans’ lineup won’t be much better tonight, as Zion Williamson, Herbert Jones, and Brandon Ingram have all been ruled out with various ailments.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Jazz are 10.5-point underdogs and the total is set for 229.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bets centered around George.
Best Keyonte George Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Keyonte George 35+ Points + Rebounds + Assists (+170)
New Orleans is actually on the second-longest win streak in the Western Conference, having won each of its last three games to relegate Utah to the Western Conference cellar. Over that stretch, the Pelicans have outscored opponents by 7.5 points per 100 possessions, the sixth-best net rating in basketball. But two of those three wins came with Williamson in the lineup, and he won’t be active tonight.
It’s not like Williamson is a great defender, but New Orleans is still a slightly better defensive team with him in the lineup than without. In its last three games, the Pelicans rank 18th in points allowed, 18th in rebounds allowed, and 26th in assists allowed. For the course of the season — in which Williamson has played just 10 games — those ranks are 25th, 27th, and 25th.
With the second-best scorer on the Jazz being Walker Kessler (10.8 points per game), George should be the start and end of Utah’s possessions. In the team’s previous game, a 136-123 loss to the Pelicans on Friday, George posted a massive 33.7% usage rate, but that came with Sexton — an 18.3 points per game scorer — in the lineup. He had a 35.1% usage rate on January 15 with all of the core players and Mykhailiuk out of the lineup against the Charlotte Hornets, a significantly better defense than New Orleans’, and had 36 P/R/A.
Keyonte George O3.5 Three-Pointers Made (+100)
George is unafraid to fire away from deep, taking 56.6% of his shots from beyond the three-point line and hitting them at fairly average (35.6%) efficiency. He doesn’t draw a lot of fouls, has less than a 2.0 assist-to-turnover ratio, isn’t a great finisher, and is a significantly negative defender, so George’s long-range shooting is his best attribute. He’s hit at least 40% of his threes in 13 of his 30 starts this season and has drained nine threes across his last two games.
Meanwhile, the Pelicans allow the 12th-most three-point attempts per game, as well as the 12th-highest percentage. Teams tend to shoot 0.3 percentage points better from beyond the arc when guarded by New Orleans players, the 11th-best in the league. The Pelicans fail to get within six feet of the shooter on 22.8% of three-point attempts, the fifth-highest rate in the league.
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.
