NBA Team Totals Betting Guide, Tips and Strategies

Betting on NBA games remains one of the more popular wagers among sports bettors. Most of the action though remains on betting the point spread.

Bettors that don’t want to miss out on some golden opportunities to increase their bankrolls should consider entering the NBA team totals market.

With a handful of tips, any bettor can find success betting team totals. It all starts with understanding the bet.

NBA Team Totals Bet Explained

When betting on NBA team totals, you are placing an Over/Under bet on an individual team’s point total. Look at the following example.

Boston Team Total

Over 114.5 (-120)

Under 114.5 (-110)

Orlando Team Total

Over 104 (-110)

Under 104 (-120)

In a matchup between Boston and Orlando, you can wager on the Celtics total. In this example, you can infer that the Celtics are favored to win. If you believe Boston will go Under 114.5 points, a $110 bet will win you $100 if the Celtics point total is 114 or less.

If you were betting on the Over, you would have to wager $120 to win $100 and Boston would have to score 115 or more points for your bet to pay out.

Understanding NBA Scoring

In the 2017-18 season, NBA teams averaged 106.3 points per game. That number increased dramatically to 111.2 in the 2018-19 season. There are actually several reasons why.

One is the emphasis on shooting three-pointers. Teams shoot more threes than ever. The pace of games is a lot faster too, but the even bigger contributors were rules changes.

The “freedom of movement” rules allow offensive players to move much more easily thereby creating more scoring opportunities. Combine that with the new :14 shot clock after an offensive rebound and you have teams averaging over 112 points per game now.

Tips for Betting on NBA Team Totals

Knowing the average number of points scored by a team (112-plus), we can then dig deeper to find value on team totals wagers. Certain teams are well-known for their ability to score a lot of points on a consistent basis. For example, the Denver Nuggets of the early to mid-1980s led the NBA in scoring in 1982, ’83, and ’84.

Bettors can look at a team’s scoring average as a general guide to a team’s total. In the Boston-Orlando example above, if the Celtics average 111.5 points per game then the Under looks pretty good.

To further decide on backing the Under, bettors can dig deeper. Looking at the Celtics opponent, Orlando, we find the Magic are not very good defensively. They give up an average of 114.8 points per game. That piece of information supports backing the Under as well.

The other thing bettors should check when betting team totals is the injury report. If Boston’s leading scorer happened to be listed as “out” for the game with the Magic, that will definitely have an impact on the Celtics scoring.

Another factor is the matchup itself. Certain teams matchup better with other teams. Maybe the game features the best offensive team in the league against the best defensive team. Maybe in the example above the Celtics just have the Magic’s number and have scored at least 115 points against them five games in a row.

Analyzing the available NBA data can give bettors all the information they need to become successful at betting NBA team totals.