The San Antonio Spurs have three games remaining in the season, and Victor Wembanayama needs to appear in at least one of them for a minimum of 20 minutes if he wants to be eligible for NBA Awards and All-NBA Teams. While he likely plays on Friday and/or Sunday to clear 65 games played, we’re not going to be seeing Wembanyama on Wednesday night. Both he and Stephon Castle are listed as doubtful with the Spurs hosting Portland.
Wembanayama and Castle have missed the same game nine times this season, and De’Aaron Fox has consistently been the beneficiary. Fox, who has played in all nine of those instances, sees a massive bump in usage with both stars off the floor. He averages 26.7 points in that nine-game sample, and has gone for 25 or more points in eight of those games.
His only dud came when he scored just 15 points against the Nuggets. However, Fox’s best game of the bunch happened to come against these Trail Blazers, when he went off for 37 points. I’ll back Fox to go over his standard point prop of 21.5 in the game, and also take a shot at the plus-money prop on 25+ given his 89% success rate at that number this season.
NBA Pick: De’Aaron Fox 22+ Points (-108)
NBA Pick: De’Aaron Fox 25+ Points (+157)
