NBA Monday best bets: Raptors to extend road streak vs. lowly Lakers
While much of the betting world has its sights set on the NCAA Tournament, there is still value to be found in the weekly NBA slate. Here are our favorite picks against the spread on Monday:
Clippers @ Cavaliers (-6.5, 211.5), 7 p.m. ET
Just a month ago, the Cavaliers were among the league's best bets and looked like a dark horse contender in the East. Maybe they still are, but injuries have thrown a wrench in Cleveland's appeal for spread bettors.
Saturday's 10-point loss to the Bulls marked the Cavs' eighth outright loss in their last 11 games (3-8 ATS) and second straight by double digits. Both came without center Jarrett Allen, who could miss the rest of the regular season after fracturing his finger a week ago. That's a major blow: Not only does Allen rank among the team's leaders in points (16.1), rebounds (10.8), and blocks (1.3), but he also ranks seventh in the league in win shares as of Monday.
It's not as if the Clippers are healthy, either, but they appear to be clicking sans Paul George (elbow) with a surprising 9-4 run ATS / straight up, which includes a 4-1 ATS record as road underdogs. At present, these teams are closer than this line suggests.
Pick: Clippers +6.5
Timberwolves (-5, 237.5) @ Spurs, 8:30 p.m.
The Timberwolves have been one of the hottest teams in the league over the last two months, but the market still hasn't caught up to this team's potential on a nightly basis.
Since Jan. 30, Minnesota is 14-5-1 ATS with 15 outright wins and has posted the second-best net rating (plus-9.0) in the entire NBA, trailing only the Celtics (plus-13.9) in that stretch. Even more incredibly, the T-Wolves are the only group to rank in the top five in offensive and defensive efficiency in that span, bolstered by five wins of 15-plus in their last seven games alone.
They'll look to extend that run against a Spurs squad that has dropped five of seven ATS, even with Dejounte Murray's incredible run of late. If his nightly triple-double watch isn't tipping the scales in San Antonio's favor, it's tough to bet on them to match up with the Timberwolves on Monday.
Pick: Timberwolves -5
Raptors (-4.5, 224.5) @ Lakers, 10:30 p.m.
It's easy to pick apart the Lakers after Sunday's embarrassing 29-point loss to the Suns, tied for the team's fifth-worst regular-season defeat since LeBron James came to Los Angeles in 2018. Yet it wasn't an outlier result as much as the exclamation point on a brutal run.
Since James returned from a five-game absence on Feb. 5, the Lakers are a miserable 5-9 ATS with just four outright wins in those 14 games, despite their superstar forward playing in all but one of those contests. His presence has hardly mattered - L.A. has been a bottom-five team by advanced metrics and ranks among the worst in the league in assist rate (50.6%), turnover rate (15%), and rebound rate (47.9%).
Conversely, the Raptors have enjoyed a three-game win streak with six players scoring in double figures at least once during that run. The Lakers are ill-equipped to slow down even one of Toronto's rangy forwards and surging guards - let alone all of them.
Pick: Raptors -4.5
C Jackson Cowart is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on Twitter (@CJacksonCowart) or email him at [email protected].