NBA Finals First Basket Prop: Pick Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic in Heat vs Nuggets Game 2

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Heat vs.

Nuggets

NBA First Basket Prop Pick: Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic

The Denver Nuggets will host the Miami Heat on Sunday night in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. Nikola Jokic (49% opening tip win rate) will jump against Bam Adebayo (54% win rate) for the opening tip-off. Over the past two seasons, Jokic has won three of five opening tip-offs versus Adebayo. In Game 1, Adebayo appeared to control the tip, but tapped it to a Nuggets player.

Regardless of who wins the opening tip-off, it is hard to bet the Heat at this point as they have scored first in just 33% of games in the playoffs. In three games this season between these two teams, the Nuggets have scored first twice. Jamal Murray and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope have cashed first basket tickets for the Nuggets while Max Strus has cashed a first basket ticket for the Heat.

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In the playoffs, Murray has now taken Denver's first shot attempt in 44% of games and has scored the Nuggets first basket in 31% of games. Both of those numbers continue to be significantly higher than his regular-season performance.

In Game 1, Murray looked to get the ball to his big man, but drove to the basket with the defense focused more on Jokic. Similar to Game 1, I like the Nuggets to score first and I'll take Jokic and Murray again to score first on Sunday night.

Pick: Jamal Murray (+700 down to +500) Risk 0.5 units

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Pick: Nikola Jokic (+450 down to +375) Risk 0.5 units

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Heat vs. Nuggets First Basket Prop Data

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