The Los Angeles Lakers absolutely needed to bounce back on Tuesday during Game 2 of their first-round series against the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves, and bounce back they did, with an ugly 94-85 win. LeBron James followed up a poor Game 1 with a significantly better outing on Tuesday, especially in the first half.
Los Angeles will need even more from James if it hopes to win Game 3 tonight in a hostile environment in Minnesota. Through the first two games of the series, the 40-year-old has not been particularly effective on either side of the ball against the Timberwolves’ Julius Randle, who’s playing both for a contract and to mollify his ugly playoff reputation.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Lakers are three-point underdogs, with the total is set for 207.5. Below, I’ve detailed my favorite prop bets centered around James.
Best LeBron James Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
LeBron James 1+ Assists 1st Three Minutes (+165)
For Los Angeles, the first quarter is a test case to see how much Luka Dončić is feeling it, as he was third in the league in first-quarter scoring and first in first-quarter usage rate during the regular season after joining the Lakers and has scored 16 points in the opening frame in each of the first two games of the series. But while Dončić operates a lot in isolation — he ranked fourth in isolations and and 10th in points per possession among the 56 players who isolated at least twice per game in the regular season — he and James have still utilized the two-man game frequently and effectively. Dončić has assisted James four times in the first two games, while James has assisted Dončić thrice.
James’ playmaking burden decreased significantly after Dončić joined Los Angeles, as he dropped from 16.3 potential assists per game prior to the wunderkind’s debut to just 12.1 thereafter, but even that figure still put him 17th in the league across that span, well ahead of both Mike Conley and Anthony Edwards, who both have shorter odds than he does to record an assist within the first three minutes of the game. Neither Laker recorded an assist in the first three minutes of Game 1, when Dončić and James combined for just four total assists throughout the game, but James did in Game 2.
LeBron James 25+ Points (+100)
James’ historic 20-season streak of averaging at least 25 points per game came to an end this season, which he fell 0.6 points per game shy of extending. It’s a remarkable accomplishment that he even came that close to extending it at all, given both his age and the fact that he became his team’s second scoring option for the first time in his career. He reached 25 points 13 times in 23 games alongside Dončić during the regular season, so after two consecutive nights falling short of that mark, he’s due. His inability to reach that number so far this series has hinged more on his inefficiency than his usage, which has remained stable since Dončić’s acquisition.
While Randle deserves some of the credit for James’ struggles so far this series — he’s just one-for-seven from deep with Randle as the primary defender — it’s not like he’s been getting an excellent contest on all of James’ shots. In fact, 56.7% of his field goal attempts in the first two games came with the nearest defender at least four feet away, an increase of 2.7 percentage points relative to the regular season. He’s just not hitting them; during the regular season, he nailed 46.1% of his open or wide-open shots, and during the playoffs so far, that accuracy has dipped to 33.1%. Expect some luck normalization, which would allow Los Angeles to steal a win on the road.
