It wasn’t supposed to be this way; Mark Williams was supposed to be a Laker.
The 23-year-old center was always going to be suiting up in tonight’s lone NBA game, regardless of for which team. Instead of catching lobs from Luka Dončić and LeBron James, he’ll instead be donning a Hornets uniform once again after failing his physical in Los Angeles. This season, he’s averaging 15.6 points and 9.6 rebounds per game and will surely be eager to show the Lakers that they made a mistake in rescinding the deal.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, Charlotte is a 12-point underdog and the point total is set to 228. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bets centered around Williams.
Best Mark Williams Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Mark Williams U9.5 Rebounds (-130)
In an ideal world, Williams is probably a better center to pair next to James and Dončić than Jaxson Hayes is, but Los Angeles hasn’t exactly been killed in the middle since losing Anthony Davis, first due to injury then to the Mavericks in the Dončić deal. Over the last eight games — starting with a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on January 28, in which Davis left in the first quarter with his abdominal injury — the Lakers have allowed just 40.8 rebounds per game, the second-fewest in the league. Since adding Dončić to the lineup, that figure has dropped back to 13th, but that has nothing to do with him or Hayes; the Utah Jazz are just really good at rebounding.
Plus, while Williams is seven feet tall with (allegedly) a taller standing reach than Victor Wembanyama and has averaged 11.5 rebounds per game since New Year’s Day — one of the reasons why Los Angeles coveted him — he also hasn’t played in two weeks and is probable with “return-to-play conditioning”, so he might not be in the best basketball shape and could be on a minutes restriction. The Hornets have no reason to risk their injury-prone star in a relatively inconsequential game, so I don’t think Williams will play enough minutes to have a huge role against the Lakers.
Mark Williams 1st Dunk Scorer (+225)
As the odds would indicate, this is basically a two-man race between Williams and Hayes (+205). Los Angeles is familiar with Hayes throwing down the first dunk of the game — in fact, Dončić’s first stat as a Laker was an assist to Hayes less than a minute into the February 10 win against the Jazz — but, surely, so are Hornets fans with Williams, who has dunked 60 times already this season, although they only represent 28% of his field goal attempts, a career low.
Ball’s health will help, given that he creates 18.7 points per game with his passing, the 12th-most of any player, and Williams averages 12.2 points in the paint per game, the most of any player in the league. Also, the Lakers allow 12.4 made two-pointers with less than two seconds of touch time — the 11th-most in the league — as well as 18.8 made field goals per game within five feet of the basket, its ninth-most, so it’s not hard to imagine Charlotte opening up the game with a Ball lob to Williams.
