Griffin Wong previews tonight’s game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Toronto Raptors with his favorite player prop bets.

As part of Thursday’s five-game NBA slate, there’s only one game that features two teams both in the top six of their respective conferences, the 7 p.m. ET matchup between the West’s No. 2 (the Los Angeles Lakers) and the East’s No. 2 (the Toronto Raptors). The game will be played at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

Of course, it’s early in the season, and it’s highly unlikely that both of these teams ultimately make the Finals next June, with just +14000 odds of the Lakers beating the Raptors to lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy and +40000 odds of Toronto ousting Los Angeles. Regardless, for both Lakers and Raptors fans, it’s fun to dream.

Both teams will be somewhat shorthanded: Toronto will be without both RJ Barrett (knee) and Jakob Poeltl (back), while Los Angeles will play without Luka Dončić (personal) and Marcus Smart (back). Dončić is in his native Slovenia with his fiancée, Anamaria Goltes, who gave birth to the couple’s second daughter earlier today.

The Raptors are 2.5-point favorites at DraftKings Sportsbook (-142 on the Moneyline), with the point total set at 229.5. The Lakers are +120 on the Moneyline. Below, I’ll lay out my three favorite prop bets for tonight’s contest.

Austin Reaves 30+ Points (+116)

Reaves has taken yet another leap and looks poised to receive Most Improved Player votes for the third time in four seasons. Between his 28.1 points per game and Dončić’s league-leading 35.3, Los Angeles’ star pairing is on pace to finish as the highest-scoring duo in NBA history. In the three games that he has played without Dončić this season, Reaves has averaged 40.0 points per game, topping the 30-point threshold twice. He also reached that threshold once in three games last season with LeBron James but no Dončić, as well as in both games without both Dončić and James. Given James’ passivity so far this season — his 15.2 points per game and 22.2% usage rate would easily be career lows — he won’t hold Reaves back from scoring 30 for the fourth time in his last five games.

Toronto has been strong defensively in its 15-7 start, ranking sixth in defensive rating, and while neither of its absent players are particularly standout defenders in their own right, it’ll still have to experiment with some comparatively less-used units, which could impact its efficiency. Plus, Scottie Barnes — the only player in the league with at least 30 steals and 30 blocks this season — guarded Reaves for just 4.6 total possessions the last time the two faced off in 2023-24. Instead, Reaves’ most likely matchup is Immanuel Quickley, against whom he scored three points and dished out two assists in just 16.1 partial possessions last season.

Sandro Mamukelashvili O17.5 Points + Rebounds (-104)

Mamukelashvili has been an underrated asset for the Raptors after they signed him to a two-year, $5.3 million contract during the offseason, averaging double-digit points for the first time in his career and draining nearly 40% of his three-pointers. The Georgian won’t necessarily start — he’s come off the bench in five of the six games that Poeltl has sat out — but he should receive at least 20 minutes. He’s had 18 or more P/R in four of the eight games in which he’s played at least 20 minutes, including a 12-point, nine-rebound effort against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley.

The Lakers, meanwhile, have won on the strength of their offense, ranking just 14th in net rating. Deandre Ayton, while a fantastic offensive player, has not solved Los Angeles’ rim protection issue, as it has allowed the second-highest field goal percentage on restricted-area shots, and Mamukelashvili takes 45.8% of his shots within three feet of the basket. Plus, without Dončić on the floor, there should be more rebound chances available for both teams, given that the Lakers’ effective field goal percentage drops by 3.3 percentage points without the Slovenian and opponents’ eFG% drops by 2.6 percentage points.

Rui Hachimura O1.5 Three-Pointers Made (-120)

Hachimura had one of the worst games of his career in Monday night’s loss to the Phoenix Suns, scoring no points, grabbing just one rebound, missing his lone shot attempt, and finishing as a minus-12. He also played a season-low 23 minutes, as JJ Redick opted to give his second-half playing time to Maxi Kleber. I just don’t expect that this will be a long-term trend; Hachimura has a much longer track record as a knockdown shooter and average defender than he does as a complete non-factor, and Redick has historically effused praise for his wing. He’s made at least two triples in 14 of his 19 games this season while shooting 46.1%, and while he might not have Dončić to hand-feed him wide-open looks, he also won’t have Dončić attempting nearly one-third of the team’s triples.

His odds are so friendly in part because Toronto has limited opponents to the lowest three-point percentage, but as with most teams who hold allow less than a third of opponents’ triples to go in, there’s a major element of luck involved. Some of it is hustle — the Raptors have contested the 11th-most threes and conceded a merely average number of wide-open looks — but the fact that opponents have shot the eighth-lowest percentage on wide-open triples suggests that regression is on the horizon. On shots with the nearest defender between four and six feet away, Toronto has gotten even luckier, allowing just 28.2% accuracy on the eighth-most attempts. Hachimura is 225-for-524 (42.9%) on open or wide-open threes across the last three seasons.