Underdogs provide the best value on Monday's massive NBA slate. Read on for our top NBA picks for Monday based on the best NBA odds.
After a two-game slate on Super Bowl Sunday, the NBA has gifted us 11 games to kick off the short week ahead of the All-Star break. The Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets got makeovers at the trade deadline, and both are in great positions to pull off upsets against the Portland Trail Blazers and New York Knicks, respectively.
Will the Houston Rockets and Philadelphia 76ers have another high-scoring game, and can the San Antonio Spurs cover a huge spread against the Cleveland Cavaliers?
Here are our NBA best bets for Monday (odds via BetMGM, FanDuel Sportsbook, and DraftKings Sportsbook; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
Check out our NBA picks and ou r best NBA betting sites.
Monday's NBA schedule and odds
(odds via DraftKings)
- Atlanta Hawks (-5.5) at Charlotte Hornets
- San Antonio Spurs (+14.5) at Cleveland Cavaliers
- Utah Jazz (+1.5) at Indiana Pacers
- Houston Rockets (+13.5) at Philadelphia 76ers
- Denver Nuggets (-1.5) at Miami Heat
- Brooklyn Nets (+2.5) at New York Knicks
- Orlando Magic (+5) at Chicago Bulls
- New Orleans Pelicans (+2.5) at Oklahoma City Thunder
- Minnesota Timberwolves (+7.5) at Dallas Mavericks
- Washington Wizards (+3) at Golden State Warriors
- Los Angeles Lakers (+2.5) at Portland Trail Blazers
Monday's NBA best bets
- Upset: Nets ML vs. Knicks (+126 via FanDuel) ????
- Spread: Spurs +15.5 vs. Cavaliers (-115 via BetMGM) ???
- Upset: Lakers ML vs. Trail Blazers (-102 via FanDuel) ????
- Total: Rockets-76ers Over 226.5 (-110 via DraftKings) ???
Check out our NBA Finals odds and NBA MVP odds.
NBA top picks for Monday
We've got an exciting cross-borough rivalry on tap tonight, and we're rolling with the underdog. The Nets have gone 2-3 across their last five, but two of the three losses have been by four points or fewer. Brooklyn is still incorporating new team members into the fold, and both Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson looked great in their team debuts on Saturday.
The Knicks are just 15-15 at home and 16-12 on the road. They lost their two prior meetings to Brooklyn this season, but the Knicks have won three of their last four. Brooklyn is surprisingly deep, and after losing a heartbreaker to Philly in the final seconds on Saturday, I'd expect the team to bounce back tonight and win a third straight against a New York team that's worse at home than on the road.
In addition, we wrote about a player prop for tonight's Nets-Knicks showdown.
The Spurs have been bad this season. There's no doubt about that. The team is on a 12-game losing streak and has failed to cover in 11 straight, but it beat Cleveland and covered in that game earlier in the season. This is a massive spread, and we're rolling with the Spurs even after they burned us in Saturday's best bets column.
Cleveland has been great at home this season, but the team has never been favored by this many points in any game thus far. The Cavs have won and covered in six straight, but Cleveland is just 2-2 in games favored by double-digit points and 14-13 against Western Conference opponents.
There's no way we're picking San Antonio to win, but they can certainly cover this massive point spread. This line is offered at 14.5 across all of our featured books except for BetMGM, which offers it at 15.5. The odds are slightly more juiced than FanDuel's -108 odds for 14.5, but we'll take the extra point as insurance.
The Lakers are small underdogs on the road, and we're targeting some juicy value in Los Angeles' plus-money ML odds. The Lakers are just 2-3 straight up over their last five and 1-4 ATS, but the team has played in six straight games that were decided by nine points or fewer. There have been some close calls, and near misses in winnable games. LeBron James has missed two straight after breaking the all-time scoring record, but there's optimism he returns to close out the week ahead of the All-Star break.
The Lakers beat Golden State at Chase Center on Saturday, and the team looked good with most of its new additions in the lineup. Th at win was big, considering LeBron was on the sidelines and Anthony Davis shot just 5-of-19 from the floor. Portland is just 1-3 straight up and ATS over its last four and 1-2 straight up and ATS against the Lakers in three previous meetings. The Blazers are still without Jusuf Nurkic, and Jerami Grant's status is up in the air while he's in the concussion protocol. The Lakers now sport the deeper roster, and they can win this one outright.
The Sixers have one of the highest Over percentages in the NBA and sport a 32-23 record. That includes a 17-12 mark at home. The team has hit the Over just twice in the last five games, but we can expect plenty of points to be scored tonight.
The Rockets are 14-13 as the road dog, and the team has hit the Over in four of its last five. When these teams met back on Dec. 5, the Rockets won 132-123 in OT, comfortably hitting the Over. The point total on this one can be bet all t he way up to 229.5, so it's a no-brainer at the current modest total.
NBA best bets made 02/13/2023 at 11:55 a.m. ET.
Here are our best NBA betting sites:
- FanDuel: First Bet up to $1,000 | Read our FanDuel Review
- Caesars: Earn Up to a $1,250 Bet Credit | Read our Caesars Review
- DraftKings: Bet $5, Get $200 in Bonus Bets | Read our DraftKings Review
- PointsBet: Earn Five Second-Chance Bets Up to $50 Each | Read our PointsBet Review
- BetMGM: Get a Bonus Bet of Up to $1,000 | Read our BetMGM Review
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* Bonuses not applicable in Ontario.
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