🏀 It's NBA Opening Night!

After an offseason capped off by some crazy trades, tonight will be NBA fans' first chance to see some of the best in the West strut their stuff. We kick it off with the Lakers looking for revenge against Denver, then head to SF to see CP3 take on his old squad. We're back 🍿 (3 min read)

Author

Cooper Halpern
October 24, 2023

Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images

NBA Opening Night

After a flurry of offseason player movement, the dust has settled on the NBA and the regular season is set to begin tonight. With four of the West’s top teams set to take the court, this should be electric ⚡️

  • Spread: Nuggets -5

  • Moneyline: Nuggets -220, Lakers +184

  • Over/Under: 228

  • When: 7:30PM EST on TNT

While the Lakers were able to strengthen their depth by adding big and talented athletes like Christian Wood, Jaxson Hayes and Taurean Prince to their rotation, the Nuggets are hoping that a handful of up-and-comers can step into the shoes of newly departed Bruce Brown and Jeff Green. Peep their lineup 👀

Tonight should be our first good look at whether the Lakers’ newfound continuity and additions on the margins can begin to close the gap between them and the Nuggets. Denver’s four-game sweep in last year’s Western Conference Finals was a little too easy, and just the third sweep of LeBron’s career 🃏

  • Spread: Warriors -1

  • Moneyline: Warriors -116, Suns -102

  • Over/Under: 235

  • When: 10PM on TNT

Both of these juggernauts will get to show off their shiny new All-Star guards tonight, with Chris Paul making his Warriors debut and Bradley Beal suiting up as a Sun for the first time 🎉

However, the Warriors will enter the game down a significant contributor, as Draymond Green is out and still nursing an ankle sprain. Still, after trading away Deandre Ayton, the Suns lack a serious rim protector on the roster, so neither team will have much rim protection to deal with the other’s high-powered offense 👨‍🍳

With both teams ripe with shot creators who can get to their spots and create for others, this could be one of the higher-scoring games of the season’s opening days 📈

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Rematch or Preview?

All four of these teams surely enter the season with much bigger aspirations than an opening night win 👇

  • Three of the league’s last four champions (Nuggets, Warriors, Bucks & Lakers) are represented in this group

  • All four teams have made the Finals once over that same period

After the Celtics and Bucks, who made major moves just a few weeks ago, all four teams playing tonight make up the next group of favorites to bring home a NBA title this year. Take a look at the championship odds 💰

  • Celtics: +380

  • Bucks: +380

  • Nuggets: +550

  • Suns: +550

  • Lakers: +1300

  • Warriors: +1400

Perhaps Vegas is pricing in age/injury history and accounting for the strength of the West vs. the top-heavy East. There’s basically three tiers of favorites, each with two teams in them 🧐

  • Jokic is still probably the consensus best player in the NBA, so betting on him to win another ring at better than 5-1 odds feels like a steal

  • But I have a hard time believing the Suns are twice as likely to win a championship as the Lakers (or Dubs) without a legitimate backbone to their defense

Here’s what odds for the league’s top MVP candidates looks like heading into tonight’s opener 🏆

  • Nikola Jokic: +430

  • Luka Doncic: +550

  • Giannis Antetokounmpo: +600

  • Jayson Tatum: +750

  • Joel Embiid: +850

  • Stephen Curry: +1400

  • Kevin Durant: +1900

  • Devin Booker: +1900

  • Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: +1900

Even though a bet on Jokic might give you the best bang for your buck, I like a bet on Anthony Davis as a long shot (+3000). If AD can lead the Lakers to a top seed in the West, he could solidify his place as one of the game’s best. However, he needs to stay healthy…😬

Trivia Question: Who is the last player to win three consecutive NBA MVPs?

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

For My Parlay Gurus

I like the Lakers to get some revenge for their Western Conference Finals loss, and throw in the Warriors-Suns game going WAY over. Take a look 👇

  • Lakers ML @ Nuggets: +184

  • Suns @ Warriors OVER 235: -110

$100 on this bet would win you $442 — if we hit, make sure you email [email protected] for a chance to win up to $100*. Many will enter, only some will win 😉

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Trivia Answer: Despite LeBron and MJ winning four and five MVPs apiece, no player has gone back-to-back-to-back since Larry Bird did it from ‘84 through ‘86 (full list)

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