The NBA has nine games on Wednesday night’s schedule, including an exciting ESPN doubleheader with the Celtics-Warriors tipping off at 7:00 p.m. ET and the Lakers-Rockets game in the nightcap at 9:30 p.m. ET. As you build your betting card for Wednesday night, DraftKings Sportsbook has plenty of ways to get involved in numerous basketball betting markets. One of the most popular markets lately has been the first point props market, which is available for each game.
First point plays are all over the most-bet player props, and they can be a great way to get a quick-hitter that delivers a win or loss right away without a long sweat or worrying about load management late in games. Finding the first scorer in any contest is a hit that can bring big-time returns, as the odds are all long shots.
As a whole, it’s an extremely simple market, since it’s just a matter of which player will score the first point in the game. Not much explanation needed!
Let’s take a look at the options and pick out a couple more first scorer props that make sense for Wednesday night.
First Scorer: Brandon Ingram, Toronto Raptors at Chicago Bulls (+468)
With 18 teams and some huge stars on the board, there are plenty of strong options for first basket, but no player on the entire slate has more first points this season than Ingram–not Luka Doncic, not Nikola Jokic, not Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, no one.
Ingram has scored the first points in 13 games this season, even though Toronto has only won 40.3% of tip-offs. The Bulls have been even worse, though, winning 35.3% of tipoffs.
Whether his team wins the tip or not, Ingram will look to be aggressive right away. He has scored three of the first buckets in his last seven games and seven of his last 14. No other player has more than four first baskets in their last 15 games, showing how aggressive Ingram has been right off the jump.
In a favorable spot against the Bulls, Ingram has the shortest odds in the game for the first basket, but he’s still a solid value at almost 5:1.
First Scorer: Donte DiVincenzo, Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Utah Jazz (+670)
The Timberwolves will be without Anthony Edwards for several games, as the star misses 1-2 weeks with a knee injury. One of the players who will help pick up some of the vacated usage will be point guard Donte DiVincenzo. With Edwards on the floor, DeVincenzo has a 15.5% usage rate, but without Edwards on the floor, his usage jumps to 18.3%.
DiVincenzo has scored the first basket in eight games this season, which is third on the team behind Edwards and Julius Randle. However, four of his first baskets have come in his last 14 games, while Randle only had one first basket during that span.
While the Jazz have been very good at winning tip-offs overall this season, they have struggled recently, and Rudy Gobert doesn’t seem likely to lose the jump-ball to Kyle Filipowski. In fact, the top five shortest odds for the first point in this game all come from the Timberwolves.
Against the Jazz on Wednesday, DiVincenzo could look to be assertive in the favorable matchup right away and establish himself as one of the top scorers in the offense without Edwards.
