Jrue Holiday Expected to Step Up With Giannis Antetokounmpo Doubtful

When the Milwaukee Bucks traded for Jrue Holiday this past offseason, I don’t think they envisioned him and Khris Middleton having to carry the team in the Eastern Conference Finals. 

However, with Giannis Antetokounmpo doubtful for Game 5 after suffering a hyperextended knee, Holiday is expected to take a major step up to fill the void.

WynnBET has Holiday’s player prop projection for points set at 22.5 on Thursday with the over (+100) as an underdog to the under (-120), but where Holiday is expected to improve the most is in his assist totals. 

The point guard’s assist prop has moved to 10.5 in Game 5 after it was at 7.5 in Game 4, although the over (+100) is the underdog to the under (-120). In Game 4, I had picked Holiday’s over on his assists as one of my bold predictions, and he delivered with a nine-assist performance. 

With Giannis trending in the wrong direction for Game 5, it makes sense that Holiday is expected to handle most of the playmaking duties as the team’s primary ball-handler. 

Holiday opened the Eastern Conference Finals with a couple of big scoring games, but he has cooled off with just 25 points on 8-of-28 shooting over his last two contests. The poor shooting hasn’t deterred him as a playmaker, as he’s put up 21 assists over the past two games, and I’d expect him to remain consistent in that category in Game 5.

While Holiday has gone over 10.5 assists just three times this postseason, you could make worse bets at +100 odds. As for his point total, I’d expect the volume to be there in terms of shots, but Holiday has been hard to trust as a scorer all postseason. 

He’s scored over 22.5 points just once (granted Giannis played in all of those games), but he seems like a fade candidate after hitting just 28.6 percent of his shots over the past two games. 

Regardless if he hits the over on either prop, Vegas is expecting Holiday to crush his normal playoff output without Giannis, as he comes into Game 5 averaging just 16.5 points and 8.1 assists per game this postseason.