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It’s an eight-game slate in the NBA tonight as the halfway point of the season approaches, and as always, there’s plenty of opportunities to make money off some player props.

Pelicans guard CJ McCollum, who is enjoying a hot start to the year for an injury-plagued New Orleans squad, headlines our prop bets today.

Here’s our pick for McCollum and two more of our favorite bets to make ahead of Wednesday’s action:

As mentioned, the Pelicans are plagued by the injury bug and will once again be without Zion Williamson (hamstring) and Brandon Ingram (toe). With that, the offense will be in the hands of former All-Star CJ McCollum.

The veteran guard has been excellent since Williamson went down with the injury on Jan. 2, scoring 28 or more points in all three games he’s played. He’s shooting at an excellent clip (48.4 percent) but his volume of shots has gone way up as well, having taken at least 21 attempts in each of those games after averaging less than 18 shots per game in December.

The Celtics are solid defensively, but they may be missing reigning Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart (knee) and All-Defensive second-team center Robert Williams III, who are both questionable with knee injuries.

I’m also slightly worried the Pelicans’ second-leading scorer of late — Jonas Valančiūnas — will get played off the floor a bit tonight. Boston often plays a five-out, small-ball lineup, especially when Williams is out, which doesn’t bode well for slow-footed big men like Valančiūnas. When these teams met in November, he played just 21 minutes, far below his season average (25 mins per game).

The Pelicans may not be very competitive as a team in this one, but someone has to score points for them, and McCollum should be the guy to get the bulk of the shots.

This is a play on Denver’s opponent rather than a bet against Jokic. The Suns will visit Ball Arena in Colorado Wednesday night after a surprising win over the Warriors on Tuesday with an injury-depleted lineup. Phoenix was without Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Deandre Ayton, Cam Johnson and Cam Payne, among others, and is expected to be similarly short-handed tonight.

They shouldn’t be as competitive again tonight, especially on a back-to-back at elevation. Despite the win, the Suns have been awful of late, losing six straight and nine of their last ten before yesterday.

Thus, oddsmakers are expecting a blowout for the 13-point favorite Nuggets, who hold the rest, home-field and health advantage, as well as simply being the better team.

Nuggets head coach Michael Malone is prudent about giving Jokic extra rest during blowouts. Jokic has played 28 or fewer minutes in nine games this season, once thanks to foul trouble and eight times during games that got out of hand. There’s a strong chance that happens once again tonight.

The line on this one could end up being one of the most lopsided of the year. If the game plays out as oddsmakers expect, Jokic should get a much-deserved half-game of rest.

We’re targeting a less-heralded hot hand with this one. Barnes is playing out of his mind to start the new year, averaging 21 points while shooting 48.6 percent from beyond the arc on a whopping seven 3-pointers a game.

It’s the latter number that makes me think this one is likely to hit. After averaging just 3.3 threes in November and 4.7 in December, Barnes has seemingly gone out of his way to be more aggressive this month.

It’s worked out for him thus far, and tonight’s matchup is about as good as it gets for sharpshooters. The NBA-worst Rockets also happen to be the league’s worst team at defending the 3-ball this season. Houston is allowing 14.3 3-pointers per game on 39.3 attempts – both, by far, the most in the league. They’ve allowed their opponents to make at least ten threes in 37 of their 40 games this season, which is three more than any other team in the NBA.

Barnes and fellow Kings shooters Kevin Huerter, Keegan Murray and Malik Monk should feast.