Griffin Wong previews tonight’s game between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Golden State Warriors with his favorite player prop bets.
Two of the four teams in the Western Conference Play-In Tournament picture a month into the season probably could’ve been expected to be there at the start of the season: the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors and the ninth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers.
Tonight, those teams will face off in each team’s third game of Emirates NBA Cup West Group C action. Each team in the group is 1-1, though Portland sits second-to-last and Golden State last in the group thanks to lopsided point differentials. Tonight’s game will tip off from the Chase Center at 10 p.m. ET.
The Warriors are 7.5-point favorites at DraftKings Sportsbook (-310 on the Moneyline), with the point total set at 237.5. The Trail Blazers are +250 on the Moneyline. Below, I’ll lay out my three favorite prop bets for tonight’s contest.
Stephen Curry U27.5 Points (-105)
Curry produced a pair off vintage performances last week against the San Antonio Spurs to help edge out the Texan team in an instant NBA Cup classic, and at his peak, the 37-year-old still impacts the game in much the same way that his 27-year-old, unanimous MVP self did. However, he’s more prone to inconsistency than he was in his younger days, as sandwiched between the 49-point effort against San Antonio and a 34-point effort against the Orlando Magic four days later was a nine-point, two-for-11 stinker against the New Orleans Pelicans, a performance that would’ve been completely unfathomable for a younger Curry but a somewhat more routine offering in the latter stages of his career.
Obviously, he should be expected to do better than that, but 28 points is an extremely high bar for any player, and Curry fell short of it in six of his first nine games of the season, though he did have 35 points in the teams’ earlier matchup on October 24. Portland hasn’t quite had the third-ranked defense that it enjoyed over the second half of the 2024-25 season, but it’s gotten pretty unfortunate to have the 22nd-ranked defense, given all of the defensive talent on its roster. Jrue Holiday’s absence will hurt — he’s been one of the best Curry defenders across the last couple of seasons — but the Golden State star has had some trouble against Toumani Camara in previous seasons as well.
Donovan Clingan 11+ Rebounds (+114)
Cling Kong had an absolutely monstrous performance on Wednesday night in the Trail Blazers’ last-minute loss to the Chicago Bulls, finishing with 17 points and a career-high 21 rebounds, marking his fourth double-digit rebounding performance in his last five games and his seventh overall. In particular, the second-year man is dominant on the offensive glass, leading the league in total offensive rebounds after snagging a total of 30 across his last four contests. His dominant rebounding should be sustainable, given that it’s more a matter of positioning than luck: of the 13 players averaging 10 or more rebounds per game this season, his average board has come the third-closest to the basket.
Rebounding is one of the Warriors’ biggest flaws. Golden State ranks just 22nd in rebounds and 20th in total rebounding percentage. Despite Curry, Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler III all being strong pound-for-pound rebounders, none of them have the size or strength to handle the seven-foot-two, 280-pound Clingan. As a result, Golden State has snagged the seventh-lowest percentage of its contested rebounds, while Clingan averages the second-most contested rebounds per game in the league. He only grabbed eight boards in the teams’ first matchup while playing just 21 minutes because of foul trouble, but I consider that an aberration, given that the Warriors have drawn the league’s second-fewest fouls this season.
Jimmy Butler O1.5 Steals (+101)
He who giveth also taketh away, and that’s exactly what Portland has done this season. The Trail Blazers rank seventh in the league in steals per game and fifth in points off of turnovers but sixth-to-last in turnovers, fifth-to-last in points off of turnovers, and second in opponent steals on the other end. Individually, four different Portland players — Deni Avdija, Holiday, Shaedon Sharpe, and Camara — are among the 93 league-wide averaging at least two turnovers per game.
In Sharpe’s and Avdija’s cases, those turnovers have mostly been lost ball turnovers, which could work in Butler’s favor, since both players were among his four most frequent assignments the first time these teams faced off. Besides, Butler’s on a steal streak in general, nabbing two or more steals in each of his last six games. The Trail Blazers also play at the league’s second-fastest pace, ratcheting up the number of opportunities for Butler to impact plays.
