A great strategy for betting basketball point spreads is to shop dozens of betting sites for the best line, and then purchase as many half points as possible (provided they are priced 10 cents each). When using this strategy, it’s helpful to know the most common margins of victory in NBA basketball and how often they occur. A point spread bet is also referred to as betting the spread or handicap betting. Point spread betting is a sports betting market in which a team either has to win by a specific number of points or goals, or not lose by a specific number of points or goals. A point spread is used by oddsmakers to even out a matchup from a betting perspective, assigning more or fewer points to a team’s final score.

The Lakers’ long road trip concludes on Monday night in Atlanta with a game against Trae Young and the Hawks, and if you’re looking to do some last-minute betting research, you’re in luck! We’ll give you the latest point spread, moneyline odds and over-under number, as well as the information you’ll need to make the smartest bet on BetMGM.

The game tips off at 7:30 p.m. ET and can be seen on Spectrum SportsNet and Fox Sports Southeast.

The Lakers opened the year with an 11-0 road record, but suffered back-to-back losses at Philadelphia and Detroit during their current seven-game road swing. The defending champs bounced back with a tight win over the Celtics on Saturday. The Hawks have alternated wins and losses over their last four, but have been off since Friday following an easy win over the Wizards.

Anthony Davis and LeBron James are listed as questionable, but are expected to play. The Hawks will be missing Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kris Dunn and De’Andre Hunter. You can see read a full preview of the game here.

The lines, courtesy of BetMGM

Point spread: Lakers -5.5Money line: Lakers -225 / Hawks +180Over-under: 218.5

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Advice and prediction

I feel like the Hawks are getting a little too much credit with this line, which has already moved in the Lakers’ favor down from an opening line of Lakers -6.5. Of the Hawks’ nine wins, only three have come against 2020 playoff teams, and one of those was against a severely depleted Clippers team missing Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.

The Lakers have won seven of their last eight games against the Hawks, and five of those wins would have covered a 5.5-point spread. The Lakers are still the best away team in the league, and LeBron has been in MVP mode this season. To guard against any Trae Young-inspired backdoor cover action, I’m taking Lakers -2.5 first half (-115).

The best bet, however, could be the under. The Hawks and Lakers are the two top teams in the league for under bettors, with unders hitting in 14 of 19 Hawks games and 15 of 21 Lakers games. Ride the trends, take the under.

Prediction: Lakers 112, Hawks 103

Get more betting analysis and predictions at Sportsbook Wire.

Understanding Point Spread Betting

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