Content on this page may include affiliate links. If you click and sign up/place a wager, we may receive compensation at no cost to you.
Sportsbooks release NBA win totals for the 2024-25 season
The Boston Celtics have the highest win total line at multiple sportsbooks.
The offseason is only a few weeks old and the 2024 Olympics are about to begin, but it’s never too early to talk about NBA season win totals. This used to be a market released late in the summer by online sportsbooks, since there is far less interest than the same markets in college football or the NFL, but after 2018 and widespread legalization, it’s become a race to release first to market.
DraftKings recently released win totals for 28 of the 30 NBA teams (the Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls are still off the board due to potential trades) and BetMGM followed a few days later.
The Celtics have the highest win total of any team
The defending champion Boston Celtics opened with the highest over/under at both DraftKings (57.5) and BetMGM (58.5) after going 64-18 in the 2023-24 regular season. It’s the second-highest total for the Celtics in the last 30 years, according to Sports Odds History (Boston had a win total of 59 in the 2018-2019 season). The Celtics have gone over their win total in each of the past four seasons.
The Oklahoma City Thunder (55.5) have the second-highest win total at sportsbooks after claiming the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference last season with a 57-25 record. The Thunder are followed by the Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets, who each have a win total of 52.5. The Nuggets have gone over their win total in all eight seasons in which Nikola Jokic has played for them (they also would have gone over in the 2019-20 season, but season win total tickets were voided due to COVID). For the Knicks, it is their highest win total since the 1997-98 season.
The Philadelphia 76ers – who added Paul George this offseason – and Milwaukee Bucks both have a win total of 51.5, followed by the NBA Finals runner-up Dallas Mavericks at 50.5.
The NBA’s lowest over/under belongs to the Brooklyn Nets at 19.5, which is the franchise’s lowest win total in 30 years.
How difficult is it for sportsbooks to set win totals?
We spoke to Halvor Egeland, a senior trader at BetMGM, who singled out a few teams whose win totals were harder to nail down. Here’s what he had to say:
“I’m pretty confident in the totals we posted but some teams were a little tougher than others. The Suns, Knicks and Grizzlies in particular… The Knicks obviously made a big acquisition in Miles Bridges but lost Isaiah Hartenstein. I personally think they’ll be awesome, but any time there’s a roster shake up like that, it’ll cause some uncertainty… The Grizzlies as one of the West’s best teams feels like it was a decade ago at this point, but they’re poised to have a big year with the return of Ja Morant… I think most would agree the Suns 2023-24 was disappointing, but now that they’ve had a season together they could make a jump to be the team we expected them to be last year.”
Last season, 14 NBA teams hit their win total Overs and 16 hit their Unders, according to the lines set by DraftKings right before the season tipped off.
