NBA betting lines provide insights into favorites, underdogs, and close games with a spread. The pro basketball spreads serve as an official indicator of what the oddsmakers think of a game. This means that the close to zero the spread is, the closer oddsmakers expect the game to be. If the spread is high, the game has a clear favorite and underdog.
For Example
If the Los Angeles Lakers are at home vs the Denver Nuggets and the Lakers have a -8 spread, the Lakers are considered heavy favorites to win. Conversely, the Nuggets have a +8 spread, meaning they are expected to lose by 8 points. In this example, if you pick the Nuggets with the spread, you would still be a winner even if the Nuggets lose by 7 points because odds makers considered this to be a complete mismatch. However, if you pick the Nuggets on the moneyline, then you would have lost because the Nuggets had to win outright for you to be a winner on the moneyline.
Over/Under
The other most common NBA lines are over/under (points). This refers to the combined total points both teams will score. This total usually ranges between 180 and 230 points depending on how offensive or defensive minded the teams involved are.
For Example: if you pick the Over on 200 points, and the Lakers win 105-98 over the Nuggets, you win because the two teams combined for 203 points.
Below are the betting lines for the NBA. This includes Money Line (game winner), point spread and over/under (points).