For a moment, all the hard work that the Charlotte Hornets had done to climb their way from the cellars of the Eastern Conference into the playoff picture looked like it was about to come undone. But with the Hornets trailing by four and 28 seconds left, Brandon Miller rose up for a top-of-the-key three and canned it, the biggest shot of his three-year NBA career (though only the third-most important shot of the game).
Charlotte will need more heroics from Miller in tonight’s 7:40 p.m. ET Play-In Tournament game against the Orlando Magic if it wants to secure its first playoff appearance since 2015-16. Tonight’s winner will be the eighth seed and face the Detroit Pistons in the first round.
The Hornets are 3.5-point favorites for tonight’s clash at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the total set to 218.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bet centered around Miller.
Best Brandon Miller Prop Bet on DraftKings Sportsbook
Brandon Miller 21+ Points (-117)
Charlotte had an extremely egalitarian scoring attack during the regular season, as each of Miller, LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel, and Miles Bridges averaged between 17.1 and 20.2 points per game, but among that quartet, Miller led the way in scoring and ranked second in efficiency. He scored at least 21 points in 33 of his 65 games, including a 25-point effort in his most recent game against the Magic. Plus, Knueppel’s benching late in Tuesday’s Play-In game was noteworthy; while he’s at no real risk of losing his starting spot, it’s possible that his usage rate takes a slight dip, which should benefit Miller.
To be fair, Orlando has a pretty good defense, although it slipped from second in defensive rating last season to 13th in 2025-26. In particular, the Magic were excellent at closing out on opposing three-point shooters, limiting opponents to the fewest wide-open three-point tries per game and holding them to the 11th-lowest percentage overall. While generating fewer open looks would hurt Miller’s scoring, it’s not as critical to his game as it is to Ball or Knueppel; Orlando was poor at guarding both the non-restricted paint and the midrange, and Miller led the team in attempts in both zones. Individually, Miller has found some success against Desmond Bane, scoring 14 points on six-for-13 shooting in 37.8 partial possessions during the regular season.
