The NBA season tips off tonight at 7:30 pm ET. The Boston Celtics will raise the franchise's 18th banner before hosting the New York Knicks.

Boston will look to repeat on last season's success and tout +310 NBA Finals odds (shortest) while New York owns +750 Finals odds (third-shortest) after a rowdy offseason that included the acquisitions of Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns.

Could tonight's match serve as a preview for the Eastern Conference Finals? The NBA programmers knew what they were doing when they concocted this primetime season opener.

The Celtics are favored by 5.5 points in a game that is showing a 223.0 over/under. Utilizing FanDuel Sportsbook's NBA odds and FanDuel Research's NBA projections -- which are powered by numberFire -- let's take a look at the best bets and player props for this bout between the Knicks and Celtics.

Please note lines are subject to change throughout the day after this article is published.

Knicks at Celtics Betting Picks

Boston Celtics -5.5 (-110)

The Celtics and Knicks are expected to run the East this season, but we can't put these two teams in the same sentence just yet. This is coming from someone who loves the moves the Knicks made this offseason.

Boston is returning with every member of their championship team who logged meaningful minutes a season ago. I'm not going to waste too much time talking about how dominant their roster is, but they did post a magnificent +11.7 net rating last year, which was the third-highest in NBA history to only two of Chicago's Jordan teams. Joe Mazzulla, somewhat famously, puts the Celtics through a grueling training camp to prepare them for the season. That helped them go 11-2 -- including 5-0 -- to start the year last go-around. They'll be ready to go tonight.

The Knicks are a totally different story. The Nova Knicks were disbanded before they could even play one game together, and Karl-Anthony Towns was brought in mere weeks ago. KAT spent his entire nine-year career with the Minnesota Timberwolves before the shocking trade to New York.

KAT needs to adjust to a new environment -- as does Bridges, who went 2-for-19 from behind the arc in the preseason and admitted to tweaking his shooting form. Josh Hart, meanwhile, said that he felt "lost" during the preseason and indicated concerns with his role. On top of that, the Knicks will be without two key members of their frontcourt to start the season -- Mitchell Robinson and Precious Achiuwa -- so a lot figures to fall on Towns' shoulders.

This is all to say that the Knicks could struggle early as they find their footing amid the massive roster upheaval, so I like the Celtics -5.5 tonight.

Boston went 4-1 against New York last season, and the lone loss came in the antepenultimate game of the regular season when the Celtics had already clinched the top seed. Bridges and OG Anunoby are a lethal defensive duo and should make things tough on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in this one, but luckily, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday are around to fuel the offense and put the clamps on Jalen Brunson.

I'm drawn a bit toward the under tonight, as the Celtics ranked 19th in pace last year and the Knicks ranked 30th. You can parlay Boston's moneyline and the under at +195 odds.

Derrick White Over 22.5 Pts + Reb + Ast (-111)

White figures to exert plenty of his energy on the defensive side tonight, but that should allow him to stay in the game long enough to exceed 22.5 combined points, rebounds, and assists (PRA).

Last season, White averaged 24.6 PRA via 32.6 minutes per game.

He suited up for 27 contests wherein he logged at least 30 minutes and the game featured a 9.0-point spread or closer. In this split, White averaged 25.7 PRA, notched at least 22 PRA in 78.5% of games (33 out of 42 contests), and eclipsed 22.5 PRA in 64.2% of games (27 out of 42 contests).

These -111 odds, which imply just a 52.6% probability, might be short-selling White's PRA potential.

Our NBA projections expect White to record 25.1 PRA in this one.

Jalen Brunson Under 28.5 Points (-122)

Betting against Brunson can be a fool's errand, but I think his points prop might be set too high considering the matchup and game environment

As mentioned, this game features a modest 223.0-point over/under. The Celtics earned the league's second-best defensive rating a season ago and return with White and Holiday, both of whom earned All-Defensive Team nods in their last campaign.

Last season, Brunson played in 15 games that featured a game total between 210 and 230 points and were against a top-10 defense. In this split, he averaged just 24.9 points and scored below 28.5 points in 10 out of 15 games.

Does his meaty shot volume concern me? Sure. But Brunson called Jrue Holiday the "best defender in the league" for a reason. In last year's season opener, Holiday limited Brunson to 15 points and Brunson went 6-for-21 from the field. Brunson went on to score 26 and 23 points in their next two matchups.

Brunson will surely have a chip on his shoulder considering the highly anticipated matchup and offseason storylines surrounding the Knicks. He figures to log a ton of minutes tonight, too. Even still, I like him to fall slightly short of 28.5 points in the season opener.

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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.