LeBron James vs Zion Williamson Prop Bets for Friday (Mar. 22)
By Sascha Paruk in College Basketball
Updated: March 24, 2020 at 10:09 am EDTPublished:
- One sportsbook is putting Zion head-to-head with LeBron tonight
- Duke is a 26-point favorite vs ND State; the Lakers are 3-point home dogs vs Brooklyn
- There’s at least one prop bet that looks like a good wager
The sportsbook has posted eight different Zion Williamson vs LeBron James prop bets for their respective games on Friday, March 22nd.
They are as follows …
Zion Williamson vs LeBron James Props
| Prop | Zion Williamson vs ND State | LeBron James vs Brooklyn Nets |
|---|---|---|
| More Points | +170 | -250 |
| More Rebounds | -120 | -120 |
| More Points + Rebounds | +170 | -250 |
| More Minutes Played | -110 | -130 |
| More Shot Attempts | +200 | -300 |
| Higher Shooting Percentage | -300 | +200 |
| More Free Throw Attempts | +100 | -140 |
| More Free Throws Made | +100 | -140 |
Duke is a Huge Favorite vs North Dakota State
Zion’s Duke Blue Devils face #16 seed North Dakota State at 7:10 PM ET tonight. They are roughly 26-point favorites over the Bison.
For the season, Zion is averaging 22.1 PPG and 8.9 RPG on 69.3% shooting from the field. But that includes a zero-point effort against North Carolina, a game in which he played just 30 seconds due to a knee injury. After exiting the UNC game, he missed the next five with that same knee injury.
Tonight, Zion is not going to have much trouble scoring against a ND State team that ranks 293rd in defensive efficiency. But he’s also not likely to be pressed for the full 40 minutes by coach Mike Krzyzewski, not with that recent injury history.
That’s part of the reason why Zion’s point total is a significant underdog to LeBron’s.
Lakers Are Home Underdogs vs Brooklyn
By contrast, LeBron’s LA Lakers are three-point home underdogs to the visiting Brooklyn Nets. The team has been absolutely decimated by injuries and is face-planting to the finish line of the NBA season.
Wait, Lonzo’s done for the rest of the season, Ingram is out with DVT issues in arm for the rest of the season and LeBron is playing reduced minutes and no back to backs? Sounds like a tank job to me. Question is: why talk now when there s less than 20 games left in the season? https://t.co/DtFu9kuYc3
— Roman Brown (@ThaRomanEmpire) March 10, 2019
LA is 1-9 in its last ten, and LeBron’s minutes are being scaled back. Even though NBA games are a full eight minutes longer than college games, the minutes-played prop is almost a dead heat.
For the season, LeBron is averaging 27.5 PPG, 8.5 RPG on 51.4% shooting. He’s played 31.8 minutes per game over the last five, significantly down from his season average of 38.6 MPG.
What’s the Best Bet?
The unpredictability related to both of their minutes makes the points and rebounds props stay-aways for me.
The best bet on the board looks like Zion to have a higher FG% tonight. You have to lay a lot of juice (-300), but Zion is remarkably efficient from the field.
Zion has hit at 60% or better in each of these last six full games, including a record-setting 13/13 performance from the field against a great UNC team.
LeBron has hit 60% from the field just once in his last ten.
Outside of Zion starting the game 0/1 and then getting injured, my math says there is more than a 75% chance that Zion has a higher FG% than LeBron tonight, and that makes this bet good value.
Managing Editor
Sascha has been working in the sports-betting industry since 2014, and quickly paired his strong writing skills with a burgeoning knowledge of probability and statistics. He holds an undergraduate degree in linguistics and a Juris Doctor from the University of British Columbia.
