NBA First Basket Prop Pick: Bet Al Horford and Jaylen Brown in Celtics vs. Bulls (October 24)

NBA First Basket will break down some of his favorite NBA plays of the day here, and will track all his bets in The Action Network app.

Al Horford | Jaylen Brown

The Bulls host the Celtics Monday evening in Chicago. Al Horford is off of the injury report (as of Sunday night) and will be back at the center position for Boston.

Horford (63% opening-tip win rate) will be taking on Nikola Vucevic (42% win rate) on the tip off. They faced each other once last season, with Horford controlling the tip-off and he should do the same on Monday night.

The Celtics led the league in scoring first last season, hitting the first basket 63% of the time. The Bulls ranked near the bottom third of the league at 46%. In the three games between these two teams last season, Horford, Robert Williams and Daniel Theis all hit the first team field goal for Boston. That was a common theme last season as the Bulls allowed the most first baskets to the center position in the league.

I’m going to take Horford and Jaylen Brown tonight as I think Boston will score first. Al Horford is undervalued at +1300 on both FanDuel and Caesars. I would play this down to +900 and I’m risking 0.3 units.

Brown is currently at +550 on FanDuel and PointsBet and he cashed the first basket in 27% of games during the regular season last year. I’d play him down to +450 and I’m risking 0.7 units.

Check out the statistics below for more information.

Pick: Horford (+1300, 0.3u) | Brown (+550, 0.7u)

Celtics vs. Bulls First Basket Data

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