No Devin Booker? No problem. The Phoenix Suns host a rebuilding Brooklyn Nets team tonight for what might be the sloppiest NBA game of the Tuesday slate. Even without their star though, the home team may still be equipped to handle business. The best news of all? There’s still value for bettors looking to get in on the action, even if you may not expect it in this one.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, Phoenix is a -8.5 favorite at home with -340 odds to win on the Moneyline. The game total is set at a measly 210.5 combined points, the lowest of all offerings tonight.
Here are the top Nets vs. Suns prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook for this Tuesday contest.
Best Nets vs. Suns player prop bets
Grayson Allen under 19.5 points (-115)
With Phoenix’s star player missing his second straight game with an ankle sprain, someone has to step up. One may think it could be Grayson Allen, a veteran guard in his third campaign with the Suns. However, such an assumption might prove incorrect. While his workload increases by roughly three additional shots when Booker misses time this season, his numbers without his star teammate in the lineup are rather rough. Allen’s shooting just 32.5% from the field on his 16.0 attempts per game, good for 16.4 PPG as a result. Even that scoring average is held up by an outlier of sorts, a 33-point outing 12 days ago. In his other four games without Booker this season, Allen has scored nine, 12, 10 and 18 points.
Life gets tougher without an All-Star on the floor to draw defensive attention. That rings especially true for a player like Allen, who’s less of a shot creator for himself and more of a specialist who teammates hit for open looks when the defense sags off to collapse the paint. Factor in the fact that Allen’s shooting numbers have collapsed after his hot first couple months of the season to just 38.4% from the field and 32.4% from three in January, and suddenly it’s tough to feel great about his overs tonight… and the Nets’ defense actually isn’t as bad as one may assume, either. Brooklyn allows 115.1 PPG to opponents, 13th in the NBA, also holding them to the third-fewest three-point attempts (33.5) and 13th-fewest makes (12.8). That bodes poorly for Allen’s game.
Nicolas Claxton 2+ blocks (+144)
Betting on the Nets’ offense is largely a dart throw on most nights since they score the fewest PPG of any NBA team and largely have a disjointed attack with plenty of glaring weaknesses. Instead of going that route, I’m targeting a prop bet on the other side of the ball and looking towards Nic Claxton to bring us to glory tonight. Brooklyn’s 26-year-old center is easily one of my favorite players in the league and I would argue he deserves better than to toil away on this rebuilding roster. Perhaps a recent stretch of success will help boost his trade value.
Claxton, a rangy 6-foot-11 big man, averages 12.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists this season as a nice all-around talent. However, he’s found better timing recently in contesting shots, tallying multiple blocks in six of his last 10 contests as well as seven of his 11 games in January. With an average of 1.4 blocks per game, he typically swats at least one shot away in any given matchup. The Suns obviously don’t have their craftiest finisher at the rim in Booker, and Claxton remains athletic enough to slide out to the perimeter as a switchable defender as well. I like the plus odds on this prop bet and expect the big man to block at least two shots tonight.
