NBA Saturday is upon us. We have a fairly big slate of 8 games and a few key matchups. Boston Celtics vs Golden State Warriors is the marquee game of the night with Mavericks vs Bulls just underneath that as Luka Doncic is on a back-to-back. We've been successful so far in December so let's keep that rolling tonight.
Jusuf Nurkic (Trail Blazers) over 12.5 points (-102)
Jusuf Nurkic was playing efficient basketball before Dame Lillard returned from injury on Thursday night and then it got ramped up a notch. Nurkic went 9-of-10 from the field and 2-of-3 from deep and finished with 21 points. The Bosnian Beast is averaging 17 ppg at home and 18.3 ppg over 3 games in December. He has been improving his field-goal percentage month over month this season, and is sitting at 64% in December.
The Timberwolves pose an interesting matchup. While the first thought is that 3-time DPOY Rudy Gobert should stifle him in the post, that hasn't necessarily been the case for Minnesota of late. They are allowing 62 ppg in the paint over the last 3 games, which is 3rd-worst in that span, and 56 ppg in the paint on the road this season (4th-worst). I like the Trail Blazers to start the game inside in an effort to get Gobert into foul trouble and open up wide looks on the perimeter. 1U.