2024 NBA bets, lines and stats for Monday - ESPN

Monday night is a huge night on the hardwood. In the college game, we get two primetime Elite Eight games in the women's NCAA tournament, featuring superstars Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers.

On the pro side, the NBA has six matchups on the night. Three feature a postseason team against a lottery squad, and non-coincidentally all three have double-digit spreads. Two of the matchups are between two teams playing in the postseason and one is between two squads both headed for the lottery. The lines for the latter three games are much closer, with the largest only 2.5 points. The spread is important for those that prefer player props, as well, because if the game ends up as a blowout there's a good chance players won't play their typical minutes and therefore might be less likely to go over their props. Food for thought.

As always, let's dig deeper into the matchups to identify some good candidates to outperform expectations.

New Orleans Pelicans (-1.5) vs. Phoenix Suns (-110).

The Pelicans are in the midst of an extremely rough bit of scheduling, having faced the Thunder, Bucks and Celtics in their past three games. Though they went 1-2 in those games, they had won five of their previous six and are playing some of the best ball in the league even with Brandon Ingram sidelined. The Suns have also faced the Thunder, Bucks and Celtics in their past nine games, but lost to all three by double figures, including a 25-point blowout to the Thunder in their latest game. Of course, in the game before that they defeated the Nuggets, so it hasn't been all bad. The Suns have the offensive firepower to match up with any team on any given night, and they are largely healthy with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker