The Suns will look to take a commanding 2-0 series lead when they host the Clippers in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. Following an outstanding performance in the opener, Suns standout Devin Booker will once again look to put his team on his back, which makes him an interesting candidate for our featured player prop.
This Game 2 showdown figures to be determined by the performances of its biggest star, so let’s dive into our best Clippers vs. Suns player prop bet.
That being said, the Clippers have shown great resiliency along with an ability to make adjustments following slow starts this postseason. Given Booker props figure to be among the most popular betting markets available this evening, he is the focus of our pick ahead of Game 2.
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Clippers vs. Suns Game 2 Player Prop Bet
Devin Booker Under 31.5 Total Points (-110 Odds)
It’s easy for the public to get behind a guy who just dropped 40 points in Game 1 en route to leading his team to victory. Fresh off of notching his first career triple-double in the process, there is reason for concern about Booker’s ability to replicate such a top-performance tonight.
To begin, this was Booker’s fourth 40-point night this season. After his previous three such outings, he came back in the next game to score 21, 32, and 17 points, good for just 23.3 points per contest. Obviously, just one of those outputs topped his posted total for tonight’s game.
The star guard attempted just 44 total shots in those games (14.7 shot attempts per game), 4.5 shots less than his 19.2 shot per game regular season average.
A Precedent for Regression
Now, one might suggest that Booker should trump those numbers tonight, simply because he is likely to play more minutes. First, it should be noted that one of those three outings mentioned above came during this postseason run. Also of note is that Booker played 44 minutes in Game 1 to earn his 40-13-11 game. It was his third straight game tallying more than 40 minutes for the Suns.
He only had three straight games with 40+ minutes once this season and it came in Games 1-3 of the Lakers series. In Game 4, he played 39 minutes and tallied just 17 points on 5-14 shooting from the field.
Booker only reached 40 minutes of play seven times in the regular season and never did so in back-to-back games, let alone in three or four straight. In the subsequent seven games following a 40+ minute effort, he averaged just 23.3 points per game, never scoring more than 30 points in any of those follow-up efforts.
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Game 1 also marked just the second time all season that Booker tallied double-digit assists in a game. In fact, he only recorded eight or more assists six times all season. The encore performances after those six games saw Booker average 26.5 points per game, topping tonight’s posted point total just once.
With the pressure of having the ball in his hands nearly every trip with Chris Paul out, could take a physical toll late.
Booker’s Splits Suggest the Under
Not many of Booker’s splits support the idea of him exceeding 32 points tonight. Surprisingly, he averages less minutes (33.5), shots (19.0), and points (25.1) per game at home than he does on the road (34.2 mpg / 19.4 spg / 26.0 ppg).
Despite his Game 1 scoring barrage, he averaged just 23.3 points per game, well below his season average, in three regular season games against the Clippers despite playing 39.7 minutes per game — his second-most against any team this season.
When Booker dropped 70 points on the Celtics back in the 2016-17 season, it was the first time he had scored 40 or more points in a game.
Since then, he has had 16 other 40+ point nights and has failed to back 60% of those games up with a scoring effort that would satisfy tonight’s point prop number of 31.5. Off such a taxing mental and physical game in Sunday’s Game 1 win, it’s hard to imagine Booker scoring 32+ points as an encore tonight.
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