National Basketball Association

2023 NBA odds: Best and worst teams against the spread

Updated Apr. 11, 2023 2:10 p.m. ET

Now that the NBA regular season is in the books and the playoffs are a few ticks away, as basketball bettors, it’s a good time to reflect on the betting results. Every year, a couple of teams surprise, while others disappoint.

While the regular season gave us monster trades, major injuries and a historic down-to-the-wire MVP race, the betting results for teams against the spread (ATS) have also provided us with excitement.

The NBA season is a long and arduous grind, filled with endless travel and unfamiliar hotels, with late nights and early morning practices. Teams go on hot and cold streaks that correlate with the peaks and valleys of the NBA marathon.

A team that performs well ATS is proving they consistently rise to a level higher than the oddsmakers (and bettors) give them credit for. While that doesn’t always translate into straight-up (SU) wins, it does translate into being a scrappy, profitable team that turns their backers into winners.

And with that in mind, one of those scrappy, profitable teams this season was the Utah Jazz. At 47-33-2 ATS, they may not have made the playoffs, but they were the best team in the league against the spread. Plain and simple, the Jazz helped a ton of bettors cash in on a nightly basis.

Expected to be a team vying for the No. 1 draft pick after trading away Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert in the offseason, they were a surprising bunch led by All-Star Lauri Markkanen, who — along with Jordan Clarkson and Colin Sexton — led a spirited group that played hard on a nightly basis. The team with a preseason win total of 26.5 bested that mark by 10.5 wins going 37-45 SU on the season.

Finishing a close second are the Philadelphia 76ers, who finished the season 47-34-1 ATS and 54-28 SU. This comes as no surprise as MVP-favorite Joel Embiid led the league in scoring, while teammate James Harden led the league in assists.

Unlike the Jazz, the 76ers, who had a preseason win total of 50.5 games, were favored more often than not this season but still took care of the competition along with the spread.

If Philly can keep this up, expect a long playoff run for the City of Brotherly Love.

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And this wouldn’t be a proper article if we didn’t point out the worst team ATS this season, and that distinction goes to the Dallas Mavericks.

At 30-49-3 ATS, the Mavericks were extremely disappointing for a squad coming off a trip to the Western Conference finals. The mid-season addition of Kyrie Irving did not bring the expected on-court result, as the team finished 38-44 SU. They entered the season with a projected win total of 48.5, falling very short of that mark.

Four of the five best teams ATS (Sixers, Thunder, Bucks, Knicks) made the playoffs. Will their regular-season betting success translate to playoff wins for gamblers?

If you want to throw down a few bucks on the games, head over to FOX Bet to get in on the hoops betting action!

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