The NBA All-Star Game is this coming weekend in Chicago. As a resident of Chicago, rest assured that I speak for an entire city filled with nearly 3 million people (not including the suburbs!) when I tell you that nobody here cares. Seriously, I have friends who live here and care about the Chicago Bulls that did not know the All-Star Game was in Chicago this year. Some still probably don't.

Feel the excitement!

I have no idea why the NBA decided to have the All-Star Game in a cold-weather city when the host franchise is in the middle of what feels like a never-ending slog called a rebuild, but they are. It'll be great, I'm sure, but probably not as good as my three NBA picks for Monday night.

All odds are via William Hill.

Hornets at Pistons: Hornets +3.5

The Pistons are one of the worst-performing teams against the spread, and that was before they traded Andre Drummond for a couple of complimentary tickets to the All-Star Game (in Chicago! This weekend!). Detroit is only 20-34-1 ATS this season, but they've managed to be even worse against conference opponents, going 11-26-1. Tonight, they'll be playing their fifth game in the last eight nights, and facing a well-rested Hornets team. Detroit traded Drummond, is already without Blake Griffin, and could very well be without Derrick Rose for the fifth straight game as well. Take the points.

Hornets at Pistons: Over 205.5

Take the points here as well, as in: more of them will be scored than this total suggests. Simply put, this total is too low for a Detroit team that's already bad defensively. There's a reason the over has gone 33-22-0 in Detroit games this year. The Pistons have played four games with a total below 210 this season, and the over is 3-1 in those games. The first two games between these two featured an average of 210 points, but neither had a total set lower than 213.5. There's no reason this line should be eight points lower than either of those games.

Hawks at Magic: Magic -8.5

Atlanta heads to Orlando to play the second half of a back-to-back. The Hawks needed two overtimes to beat the Knicks on Sunday and will be a bit tired for this contest, as they had four players go at least 48 minutes on Sunday. That won't help a team that is already 10-18 ATS on the road this year, as well as 2-7 ATS in the second game of back-to-backs. The Magic are 0-2 against the Hawks this season, but you should feel safe laying the points with them on Monday.