NBA Finals Game 5 Preview: Picks, Predictions, and Player Props

All square in the NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics are down to a best-of-three scenario to determine a champion.

Steph Curry’s 43-point outburst in Game 4 sends the series back to San Francisco for Monday’s game, the fifth in a series comprised of all double-digit victories.

The Celtics had a chance to stake a momentous 3-1 series advantage with the lead in the final five minutes, but Curry was too much, and the opportunity escaped Boston.

“Give them credit, they hit some big shots," Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum said. "We obviously felt like we had put ourselves in position to win the game, and there are a lot of things we wish we had done differently."

Point Taken

Marcus Smart earned his Defensive Player of the Year hardware, but his ability to “lock down” Curry in this series appears to have been wildly overplayed. Curry caught fire early with 12 in the first quarter of Game 4 and made 7 of his 14 3-point shots. Curry’s teammates are deferring more than usual, and if the light is green early in this one, another epic outing from the flammable shooter will follow.

The Pick: Steph Curry to score 6 or more points in all four quarters (+450 with FanDuel Sportsbook boost)

Dirty Dozen

The Warriors are just 4-point home favorites. Only Memphis covered the spread at home at a higher rate in the NBA this season and the first four games of the series were decided by 10-plus points. The 62.4 percent cover rate at Chase Center and Curry’s current run are more than enough to bet with the playoff trend of wide margins of victory.

The Pick: Warriors -4 (-108 at FanDuel Sportsbook)

From Distance

Jaylen Brown gets our backing among player props with at least 2.5 3-pointers made with Curry listed at 5.5 (o/u) after a sizzling shooting performance in Game 4. Brown is 5 for 17 from 3-point range at Golden State in this series (Game 1 and 2) but had 4, 4 and 5 makes in games at Miami in the conference finals. The volume play is there and the minutes are almost certain.

The Pick: Jaylen Brown over 2.5 3 pointers made (-125 at FanDuel Sportsbook)

—Field Level Media