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We may or may not have LeBron James back tonight as the Lakers and Celtics, one of the NBA’s greatest all-time rivalries, tip off an ESPN doubleheader from Boston, a city we want you to continue to focus on Saturday, too.

That is because Luguentz Dort, a defensive specialist for the Oklahoma City Thunder, will be playing the second half of a back-to-back after facing the defending champion but not-all-that-good Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night.

Dort is 100-1 for Most Improved Player, a category currently looking like it belongs to the +200 favorite, Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies. Morant’s scoring is up 6.8 points per game to 25.9 per game and he is shooting 49.3 percent, about a 5 percent jump. So he is a worthy favorite, but the Rookie of the Year two seasons ago was already good. That sometimes matters in MIP voting.

Dort is averaging 17.2 points per game, an increase of 3.2 points per game from last season. But he has scored 20 or more points in five straight games, including a career-high 34 Wednesday night against Houston on 14-for-22 shooting for the Thunder, who sit in 10th place in the Western Conference and could very well be a play-in team at the least in the postseason.

Dort scored 20 or more points zero times in the first eight games of the season, and just nine times last season (four of which came in the final 10 games). He is sneaky good for a team that has been off the radar for the better part of a decade except for when it comes to tanking and stockpiling draft picks. And at a certain point, the Thunder will become relevant once again. When that happens, it will be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dort who will start trending, because both are very good, very exciting young players whose hard work off the grid is starting to show discernable results.

The Thunder remain very much off the radar, and we expect Dort’s Most Improved Player odds to stay right where they are unless he goes off for 40 or more tonight against the Bucks or Saturday against the Celtics. So just keep an eye on him, because he may become worthy of a futures investment if OKC remains a postseason contender and Morant shows some slippage. As we have told you before, the sportsbooks tend to anoint a favorite in some futures markets and leave him there longer than deserved. The NBA season is not even 20 percent complete, so there is a ton of time ahead of us before games start to be meaningful.

For now, there is little predictability on a night-to-night basis aside from the fact that the “under” stands at 139-90. If you had wagered $100 on every single “under” since the start of the season, you would be sitting on a $4,072 profit at the moment.

Let’s have a look at a couple games we are eyeballing:

DALLAS AT PHOENIX: This is the second half of the ESPN doubleheader, and the Suns are the hottest team in the league right now with a 10-game winning streak that has them 1.5 games behind the Golden State Warriors for first place in the West. Chris Paul is coming off a 14-assist, zero-turnover game against the Dallas Mavs as he continues to defeat Father Time. He leads the NBA with 10.5 assists per game, and his assists over/under is 9.5. He had 10 assists in the season opener the last time he faced the Nuggets, and he was dominant against Denver is last year’s playoff sweep of the Nuggets, with a 37-point effort in the closeout Game 4 and double figure assist totals in Games 1 and 2, along with double-figure assists in two of three regular season games against the Nuggets last season, both of which went to double overtime. Not only does the "over" on assists seem safe, so does the combined points-rebounds-assists of 28.5.

OKLAHOMA CITY AT MILWAUKEE: Back to Dort. He has made four 3-pointers in each of his past two games, and he has attempted 108 in seven games this month. The over on his 3-pointers is just 1.5, so we like that to hit – maybe before halftime. Also, the Thunder are 13-point underdogs. OKC is 8-6-0 against the spread whereas the Bucks are 6-9-0, so go ahead and take the points and hope for the best. The Thunder have won five of seven, so grab ‘em when they are hot.

GOLDEN STATE AT DETROIT: The Steph Curry show makes its next stop, and we do not expect the Pistons to do too much defensively against the ‘Dubs. (The Pistons gave up 129 points to Sacramento on Monday). The spread of 7 seems waaaaay too low, and as a flyer we like Curry at +500 to make the first basket of the game. His over-under on points was not posted early Friday morning, but he is coming off a 40-point game against Cleveland, a 37-point game at Brooklyn, a 27-point game at Charlotte and a 40-point game vs. Chicago.

He is a very, very worthy +200 to win MVP, and Detroit has nobody who can defend him. If the point over-under is under 30, go over. But also keep in mind that he may be rested at some point on the ‘Dubs’ trip due to a sore hip. He has been absurd from distance through the month of November, making a total of 54 3-pointers. No reason to believe that will be different tonight. Ride him, too.

BEST BETS

Chris Paul over 9.5 assists (-115)

Chris Paul over 28.5 points + assists + rebounds (-120)

Luguentz Dort over 1.5 3-pointers (-165)

Thunder +12.5 (-110)

Warriors -7 (-110)

Steph Curry to make the first basket (+500)