The Knicks will look to defend their territory tonight in Madison Square Garden in a Game 5 elimination game. They’re currently down 3-1 but will fight for their playoff lives and won’t go down easily.
Coach Tom Thibodeau typically runs a pretty tight ship in the post season but has experimented with starting Mitchell Robinson over Josh Hart and giving minutes to Landry Shamet and Delon Wright in the wake of the Knicks’ foul troubles, as we saw in Game 3. One constant for this hard-nosed New York squad has been the availability and tenacity of Mikal Bridges, who will once again play huge minutes and leave it all on the floor tonight.
Here’s the top Mikal Bridges prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook for Pacers vs. Knicks Game 5 tonight.
Best Mikal Bridges prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
PTS 17.5 (Over -105 / Under -125): Bridges is averaging 15.8 PPG this postseason run, and has bumped it up to 17 PPG against Indiana. He’ll need to stay aggressive tonight at home to avoid elimination. Given the stakes, I’m backing Bridges to go Over his 17.5 O/U tonight. Additionally, in the regular season, he was more efficient and scored more in general at home, averaging 19.7 PPG in the Garden on 51.6% shooting and 15.6 PPG on 48.2% shooting outside of it.
Despite the home-court comfort, it won’t be an easy task to find his offensive groove. He’s been tasked as the primary defender on Tyrese Haliburton on the other end, which is no easy job. Haliburton’s been thriving as an offensive force and averaging a double double with 24.3 PPG and 11 APG during this series. The Knicks don’t have a clear answer for him. Despite Mikal Bridges’ best efforts, he’s going to have to find some balance between denying Haliburton his shots and scoring on his own.
Bridges has not been shooting the ball particularly well this series, at just 43.3 FG%. As a career playoff 46.2% shooter, some positive regression is in line for Mikal tonight as he hopes to keep the Knicks’ season alive.
