Top NBA Odds, Picks & Predictions: Sunday (12/17)

After a two-week absence due to the In-Season Tournament, the NBA is back to playing regularly scheduled games on Sunday. It's just a small five-game slate, but plenty of opportunities for action. Here are a few of the best bets for NBA Sunday action.

Sunday’s NBA Best Bets

(Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)

Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics

This is a rematch of the Friday night contest between these two teams. Boston cruised to a 128-111 victory without Kristaps Porzingis and a few others that were banged up but still played. Boston was a 5.5-point favorite on Friday night and the books are now capping this one at 6.5 points in favor of the home team. In my opinion, it's still not enough.

The Magic have been a great story this season, coming out of the gate with a 16-8 record. They're a team clearly on the rise, but their record may be inflated by a fairly easy strength of schedule so far. Per adjusted net rating, their strength of schedule is only 22nd in the league. If you take a closer look at the road results it shows a young team that still has a ways to go to be a true contender in the Eastern Conference. They're 6-5 ATS on the road this season but only 3-4 against teams over .500, losing their last three ATS.

The biggest thing holding Orlando back is they don't have a consistent offense to keep up with some of the elite offenses they play. Boston is without a doubt an elite offense, ranking 4th in schedule-adjusted offensive rating. If Boston has their full rotation available we could see this number go up even more. I'm jumping on this right now regardless.

Pick: Celtics -8 (-110)

New Orleans Pelicans at San Antonio Spurs

After a grueling 18-game losing streak, the Spurs finally picked up a win on Friday night against the Lakers. The streak saw them losing games by an average of 13.1 points per game, including a 15-point loss to these same Pelicans two weeks ago.

The Pelicans have had to deal with some injuries to start this season but they're healthier now than they've been maybe all year and we saw them playing well last week during the In-Season Tournament. In addition, they've rallied off three wins since losing to the Lakers in the semifinals. The healthy starting lineup has started to gel offensively too as they've put up 125.5 per game in their last four wins.

The Spurs could have some serious issues defensively as they rank just 23rd in adjusted defensive rating. One aspect the Pelicans excel at is getting to the free throw line. Their free throw rate is fourth in all of the NBA and the Spurs foul at an above-average rate. If the Pelicans are getting to the line a lot, the Spurs could struggle to keep up offensively with their own offensive rating ranking just 28th in the league.

San Antonio is going to be a really fun team this season. Snapping the huge losing streak was crucial for them, but it's time to go right back to fading a team that will find themselves in the lottery again this year.

Pick: Pelicans -7.5 (-110)

Golden State Warriors at Portland Trailblazers

The Warriors made headlines this week for all of the wrong reasons. On Thursday they lost their fourth game in five tries. To add insult to injury, Draymond Green was suspended indefinitely stemming from an altercation on Tuesday night. The Warriors have to move forward and this is probably the perfect time to buy.

The Warriors haven't been as bad as their 11-14 record indicates. Advanced stats still like them as they sit 10th in adjusted net rating. A big reason for this is their net rating strength of schedule, trailing only the Spurs this season. In short, they've had a tough schedule. Just looking at their recent slide, they had two losses to the surging Clippers, the Thunder, and the Suns all of which were close games.

Portland should be a decent matchup for Golden State. Their offense is hovering in the same region as the lowly Pistons and Spurs. For a Warrior offense that is struggling to shoot at the same level we've become accustomed to, it's a matchup where they shouldn’t need to rely on hot shooting to pull away.

There may be no better time than now to start buying on the Warriors. Both of these teams will be on the second night of a back-to-back, but I like the Warriors to take care of business against a team that they're definitively better than.

Pick: Warriors -4 (-110)