Handicapping the NBA: Monday Picks

Can Jordan Clarkson step up in the absence of Donovan Mitchell?
Handicapping the NBA: Monday Picks

Alex Barutha

Jordan Clarkson over 19.5 points (-108) at Spurs -- FanDuel, 3:14 PM CT

Donovan Mitchell is out, and Clarkson is the biggest beneficiary when Mitchell is off the floor. Per 36 minutes with Mitchell off, Clarkson takes 5.5 more field goal attempts and scores 24.0 points. The Spurs are a relatively soft matchup, so Clarkson has a good chance to crack the 20-point mark.

Nick Whalen

Chicago Bulls -4.5 (-115) at Atlanta Hawks -- DraftKings Sportsbook, 1:30 PM CT

This is the second leg of a back-to-back for Chicago, but I'm surprised this line is only 4.5 points with Atlanta missing a number of key contributors due to COVID-19 protocols. There's a slight chance Trae Young could return for this game, but even if he's able to return a pair of negative tests this afternoon, Monday would mark his first action in more than a week. Meanwhile, the Bulls have three of their four best players healthy, and Zach LaVine showed little to no signs of rust in Sunday night's win over the Pacers. With Young looking questionable at best, I'm backing the Bulls against the spread.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Alex is RotoWire's Chief NBA Editor. He writes articles about daily fantasy, year-long fantasy and sports betting. You can hear him on the RotoWire NBA Podcast, Sirius XM, VSiN and other platforms. He firmly believes Robert Covington is the most underrated fantasy player of the past decade.
Now in his 10th year with the company, Nick is RotoWire's Senior Media Analyst, a position he took on after several years as the Head of Basketball Content. A multi-time FSGA and FSWA award winner, Nick co-hosts RotoWire's flagship show on Sirius XM Fantasy alongside Jeff Erickson, as well as The RotoWire NBA Show on Sirius XM NBA with Alex Barutha. He also co-hosts RotoWire's Football and Basketball podcasts. You can catch Nick's NBA and NFL analysis on VSiN and DraftKings, as well as RotoWire's various social and video channels. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @wha1en.
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