Karl-Anthony Towns is fresh off a breakout scoring game in his short career as a member of the New York Knicks. Tonight, he gets another great matchup against the Detroit Pistons. Two other players I’ll be backing tonight are Jarrett Allen and Zach LaVine.
Continue below for my NBA player props and my NBA picks for Friday, November 1.
NBA Player Props for Friday, November 1
- Karl-Anthony Towns Over 20.5 Points (-120, DraftKings)
- Jarrett Allen to Record a Double-Double (+100, FanDuel)
- Zach LaVine Over 20.5 Points (-120, DraftKings)
Tonight, Karl-Anthony Towns need 21 points to go over this scoring prop. On Wednesday night, he more than doubled it with 44 points against a typically stingy Miami defense. In just his fourth game with the Knicks, it was his second 20-point game this season. I expect that trend to move to three of five after tonight's game.
Towns has scored 21 points in each of his last three games against the Pistons while averaging 24 points per game in that stretch. His primary defenders will be Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart tonight. Duren is a great rebounder, but he remains a below-average defender at this stage of his career. Meanwhile, Towns has a five-inch height advantage over Stewart.
While still with Minnesota, Towns scored 27 points in his last game against Detroit. The Knicks have several scoring options, but it will likely be Towns or Jalen Brunson who leads the team in scoring tonight. With that in mind, you can also back Towns for 25 points at +190 and 30 points at +600 on DraftKings tonight.
Pick: Karl-Anthony Towns Over 20.5 Points (-120)
The Orlando Magic received some devastating news last night with star forward Paolo Banchero being diagnosed with a torn right oblique and out 4-6 weeks. Now, without Banchero, you can probably find some value on Orlando's players for scoring props as they will need to make up for his absence. However, as of this writing, there are not many Magic players available. Additionally, they can struggle at times even with Banchero on the floor so I'm targeting one of the Cavaliers players who will grab their misses.
Jarrett Allen has pulled down 11 rebounds in three of his first five games this season with 32 in his last two games. He also has scored at least 14 points in every game this season. Considering the opponent, Allen is coming off his best game thus far this season. Against, he had 20 points and 17 rebounds and was a +14 in 31 minutes while outplaying Anthony Davis.
Allen is now averaging 17 points and 11 rebounds per game this season. Of his last seven regular season games against the Magic, Allen has five games each with 10 points and 10 rebounds, giving him four double-doubles in that span. Additionally, this is a rematch of last year's first round series. While the Cavs ultimately won in seven games, Allen was unable to finish the series because of injury. That may give him a bit of motivation tonight.
Pick: Jarrett Allen to Record a Double-Double (+100)
Zach LaVine just faced this Magic team on Wednesday and finished with just 11 points against their tough defense. That was the first time this season that he has been held below 20 points and it sets up a buy low opportunity for us tonight. LaVine is still averaging 23 points per game this season, a bucket above this line. He has this number in four of his first five games with 25 points in three of them.
Tonight, he sees a Brooklyn team that he has enjoyed a lot of success against. In his last nine games against the Nets, LaVine is averaging 25.8 points while hitting this line in seven of them. Additionally, he finished with 20 points on the nose in another game. Brooklyn comes into tonight's game 26th in scoring defense, surrendering 117.6 points per game. It is allowing opponents to shoot 51.7% from the field while surrendering 37.2 free attempts per game, most in the league.
Now, it is worth mentioning that LaVine is questionable for tonight's game with a sprain in his left shoulder, but he said he was fine. The chance to go against this Nets defense will probably make his shoulder feel better and get to 21 points tonight.
Pick: Zach LaVine Over 20.5 Points (-120)
