Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and Spurs will be played in New York on Wednesday night. The Knicks lead the series 2-1.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, New York is favored by 2.5 points for Game 4, and the total is set at 216.5 points.
Here is a look at my favorite Jalen Brunson prop bet for the pivotal Game 4 matchup.
Best Jalen Brunson Prop for Knicks vs. Spurs Game 4
It seems as if the entire NBA Finals ride on this Game 4. If the Knicks win, they will take a 3-1 lead in the series. Famously, only one team in NBA history has blown a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals. However, if the Spurs win again, they will reclaim home-court advantage and head back to San Antonio with all of the momentum in the series. As it goes with the Knicks, that means all of the pressure is on Jalen Brunson. He has carried this team from the gutter to the NBA Finals, and it is on his shoulders to win two more games and achieve New York immortality. That doesn’t always mean scoring, but this team will go how Jalen Brunson goes the rest of this series.
Jalen Brunson Over 9.5 Rebounds + Assists (-102)
My best bet is for Jalen Brunson to go over 9.5 rebounds + assists. The Knicks’ offense did not look right in the second half of Game 3. The Spurs were finding ways to keep Victor Wembanyama in the paint and using their elite perimeter defenders to take away the passing lanes. That led to Jalen Brunson dribbling 35 feet from the basket with pressure in his face for far too much of that second half. Brunson and Mike Brown should come up with a good answer to this problem for Game 4. The main thing Brunson should do is get in the lane and create havoc. It will be tough for him to get his shot in the lane against Wembanyama, but he should be able to kick to shooters or cutting teammates for baskets.
Jalen Brunson has at least five assists in nine of his past 10 games, and he has at least six assists in seven of his past 10 games. That six-assist mark should be very achievable for Brunson in this game. The Knicks’ primary shooters – Mikal Bridges, Landry Shamet and Deuce McBride – all underperformed in Game 3. There should be some self-correction there, with Brunson’s kick-outs leading to more made shots this time around.
Brunson has been working hard on the glass in this series as well. He has five rebounds in each of the past two games against the Spurs. Wembanyama is such a force on the glass that the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson are doing too much work blocking him out to even grab a board. The big guys are removing Wembanyama from the play and forcing the guards to come in and rebound. The Spurs’ guards want to crash the boards as well, which requires Brunson to crash with them rather than leak out. He should keep that up and grab a few rebounds in this game as well, getting him over this combination prop number.
