The NBA playoffs resume with Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals this Thursday — and our NBA betting expert Brandon Anderson is targeting a total of three player props for tonight's second matchup between the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Continue below for our NBA player prop bets for Knicks vs. Cavaliers Game 2 on Thursday, May 21.
NBA Player Prop Bets for Knicks vs Cavaliers Game 2
| Time (ET) | Player Prop |
|---|---|
| 8 p.m. | |
| 8 p.m. | |
| 8 p.m. | |
Specific betting recommendations come from the sportsbook offering preferred odds as of writing. Always shop for the best price using our NBA Odds page, which automatically surfaces the best lines for every game. | |
Cavaliers vs. Knicks Three-Pointers Escalator
Landry Shamet Three-Pointers Escalator
We knew coming into this series that this simply wasn't a great matchup for Josh Hart, and Game 1 provided the mathematical proof. Look at the data uncovered by Caitlin Cooper: the Knicks averaged a miserable 0.63 points per chance on 29 drives with Hart on the court, but that number skyrocketed to 1.26 points per chance on 32 drives with Hart off the floor.
The Knicks' mind-boggling 44-11 game-ending blitz in Game 1 wasn't just a byproduct of Cleveland's dead legs; it was unlocked by the five-out spacing that occurred when New York finally subbed out Hart for Landry Shamet.
While I expect books to offer some value on Hart unders, his chaotic energy still makes me nervous to flat-out fade. Instead, I am pivoting directly to the primary beneficiary of that spacing adjustment. Shamet has been on fire lately, hitting 2, 4, and 3 triples over his last three games while shooting a blistering 75% from beyond the arc.
He isn't going to see elite volume—we are likely looking at a tight 12-to-15 minute baseline on the court—but when he gets minutes, he produces. In the six playoff games where he has logged at least 10 minutes (all double-digit New York victories, notably), he is averaging 2.0 makes on 3.8 attempts, while hitting at least one triple in all six.
You can bet his standard over 0.5 makes at a heavily juiced -190 at bet365, but y'all know I am not paying that kind of tax. Instead, we are playing the alternate milestone market and climbing the ladder.
Shamet 2+ Made Threes sits at +185, implying just a 35% probability for a guy who has cleared this rung in three straight games. If he catches fire early and the Knicks deploy their five-out unit again, we are riding the escalator all the way to the moon:
- 2+ Made Threes (+185 at bet365)
- 3+ Made Threes (+575 at bet365)
- 4+ Made Threes (+1100 at bet365)
Pick: Landry Shamet Three-Pointers Escalator
Cavaliers vs. Knicks Assist Props
Dennis Schroder Over 2.5 Assists (-120) / 5+ Assists (+400)
Is this a spite bet? Yes, this is absolutely, unadulterated spite. I am completely out on this Cavaliers roster mentally, and I want to use Game 2 to actively wager against them.
Kenny Atkinson stubbornly refuses to bench Dennis Schröder despite him posting a horrific 37% field goal percentage, a 97 offensive rating, a sub-50% true shooting metric, and a net-negative -4.2 BPM in the postseason.
In Game 1, Dennis was an absolute disaster: shooting 1-of-9 from the floor, failing on all five of his two-point attempts, and anchoring a lineup that generated a 63 offensive rating with him on the court compared to a blistering 144 offensive rating when he sat.
But, Atkinson loves him as a security blanket. If the Cavs insist on running the offense through him next to Donovan Mitchell, we might as well profit off the volume.
Despite his scoring inefficiencies, Schröder actually led the team with five assists on 10 potential assist opportunities in Game 1. Since the start of the Detroit series last round, Schröder has logged 26 assists across eight games—averaging 3.3 assists per contest while clearing the 3+ assist threshold in six of those eight games (a highly consistent 75% hit rate) on nearly 7 potential assists per night.
There is also substantial structural upside here because Mitchell is clearly laboring on a banged-up ankle; if Mitchell is limited or re-injures it mid-game, it forces even more on-ball playmaking onto Dennis.
I’m not waiting around for injury confirmation. I'm taking the baseline Over 2.5 Assists and sprinkling on 5+ Assists at +400, which cashed in Game 1, and in three of his last seven outings overall.
Pick: Dennis Schroder Over 2.5 Assists (-120) / 5+ Assists (+400)
Cavaliers vs. Knicks First Quarter Prop
Karl-Anthony Towns Over 1.5 First Quarter Assists (+134) + Escalator
I am heading back to the first-quarter prop market, and this time we are exploiting an early-game playmaking trend for Karl-Anthony Towns.
If you watched the second half of Game 1, New York completely abandoned the KAT hub on offense, and the half-court execution turned painfully stagnant. They opened the game feeding him at the top of the key as an operational hub, yielding two quick assists in the first four minutes of play, but he finished the night with just five assists.
Remarkably, he possessed a 100% conversion rate on his potential assists in Game 1 because these aren't high-risk perimeter kicks; they are easy-button, 7-to-9 foot interior dump-offs to cutters at the rim.
The Knicks know they can't rely on Jalen Brunson hero ball for 48 minutes straight without physically breaking his star. New York must re-establish their effective early-game script, which has catalyzed Towns’ playmaking to 7.6 assists per game over his last eight appearances.
When you isolate his first-quarter distribution in that eight-game sample, he has recorded assist counts of 3, 2, 4, 1, 2, 0, 5, and 2. That averages out to 2.4 assists in the opening frame alone, meaning Towns has cleared Over 1.5 First Quarter Assists in 75% of his last eight games.
His only real miss in that stretch was a skewed, 5-minute performance due to immediate foul trouble. By comparison, across 22 other individual quarters in that span, he averaged just 1.9 assists and hit the 2+ mark at a mere 45% clip.
This is an intentional, early-game schematic wrinkle. I am taking Over 1.5 1Q Assists at +134 at FanDuel. Furthermore, our multi-assist simulation metrics show he records 3+ assists in 41% of quarters in which he plays 7+ minutes, and 4+ assists in 32%. That implies true fair value should sit around +150 and +200, but the books are hanging some mispriced alt-milestones. Let's make a splash early:
- 1Q Over 1.5 Assists (+134 at FanDuel)
- 1Q 3+ Assists (+450 at FanDuel)
- 1Q 4+ Assists (+1200 at FanDuel)
