The very good, bad and really uglyAfter the NBA’s top 10 teams, the rest of the league is sometimes tough to watch and always difficult to rank.
Mavs win streaks: 12 overall, 20 at home (AP)The Dallas Mavericks’ 20th consecutive home victory and 12th straight overall was the picture of precision. Dirk Nowitzki had 27 points and eight rebounds and Jason Terry added 21 points as the Mavericks extended their club-record home winning streak by easing to a 110-87 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night.
Ailing Bryant scores 35, Lakers top Jazz (AP)Kobe Bryant’s throat was sore and his back was tight. Good thing he was able to score most of his points standings still. Bryant made up for an off shooting night by making 21 free throws, scoring 35 points to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 102-94 win over the Utah Jazz on Monday night. After losing six straight, the Lakers have won three in a row and again got help from somebody other than…
Marbury lifts Knicks over Heat 99-93 (AP)Stephon Marbury made the most of 12 shots. Marbury scored 18 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter and Jamal Crawford hurt the Miami Heat again with a deep 3-pointer in the closing seconds to lift the New York Knicks to a 99-93 victory Monday night. The Knicks, who lost at New Jersey on Sunday while trying to gain ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race, shook off the defending NBA champions…
Wade to get second opinion on shoulder (AP)Heat guard Dwyane Wade will seek a second opinion early this week before deciding whether to rehabilitate his dislocated left shoulder or have season-ending surgery to repair the joint. “The sooner the better,” Miami coach and president Pat Riley said Sunday before the Heat beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 86-81, only their second win in nine games without Wade this season.
McGrady sits out, Rockets fall to Celts (AP)Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers got two important things out of Monday’s game against the Houston Rockets: a win and a teaching tool. Rivers was impressed with the maturity his young team showed in a 77-72 victory over the short-handed Rockets that broke a 12-game road losing streak. Paul Pierce scored 28 points to help the Celtics rally from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to avoid matching the…
Wizards’ Butler suffering back spasms (AP)Washington Wizards All-Star forward Caron Butler remained sidelined Monday with lower back spasms, while Antawn Jamison returned to practice for the first time since injuring his knee last month. Butler was unable to play in Sunday’s 98-94 loss at Minnesota, the first game he has missed this season, and his status is uncertain for Tuesday’s game against the New Jersey Nets.
Davis, Garnett spark Wolves past Wizards (AP)In a matchup of All-Stars, it was the Timberwolves’ supporting cast that made the difference. Kevin Garnett had 26 points and 17 rebounds Sunday in leading Minnesota to a 98-94 victory over the Washington Wizards that ended a three-game slide. Fellow All-Star Gilbert Arenas finished with 20 for the Wizards, but was harried into shooting 4-for-22 from the field.
Stoudemire’s 43 lift Suns past Hawks (AP)The Phoenix Suns are two wins away from an unprecedented sweep of their regular-season tour of the Eastern Conference. Amare Stoudemire is playing as if he’s planning on more road success against the East in the postseason. Stoudemire scored a season-high 43 points and the Phoenix Suns improved to 13-0 in road games against the Eastern Conference, beating the Atlanta Hawks 115-106 on Sunday night.
Heat top Cavs for first win without Wade (AP)For the first time in a few days, Dwyane Wade had something to enjoy. Shaquille O’Neal had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Miami held Cleveland to 36 percent shooting in beating the Cavaliers 86-81 Sunday — the Heat’s first win since Wade dislocated his left shoulder last week. Jason Kapono added 17 points and 11 rebounds for his second career double-double, and Alonzo Mourning scored 15 points in…
McGrady rallies Rockets past Magic (AP)Tracy McGrady gave Orlando Magic fans trip down memory lane they would probably rather forget. McGrady scored 34 points with six assists Sunday and just about single-handedly carried the Houston Rockets to a 97-93 victory over the Magic. It was vintage McGrady, who did pretty much the same thing for Orlando during the four seasons he played for the Magic before being traded to Houston in 2004.
Webber’s putback gets Pistons by Bulls (AP)Ben Wallace got the reaction he wanted, not the result. Chris Webber made a putback with 2.2 seconds left and matched a season high with 21 points to lift the Detroit Pistons to a 95-93 win over the Chicago Bulls on Sunday. In his first game at The Palace since leaving to play for Chicago, Wallace wanted anything but an apathetic reception from the crowd that adored him the previous six seasons.
Survivor: MiamiDALLAS – With Dwyane Wade hurt, the Heat must rely on Shaquille O’Neal and Jason Williams to lead them to the playoffs.
Dennis Johnson remembered at memorial (AP)Former NBA players remembered Dennis Johnson for his athletic ability and his infectious smile Sunday during a memorial service where there was far more laughter than tears. “In my lifetime I have never met such a dynamic person,” former Boston Celtics teammate Cedric Maxwell told the crowd of nearly 200 people gathered in the David Chapel Baptist Church.
Survivor: MiamiDALLAS – With Dwyane Wade hurt, the Heat must rely on Shaquille O’Neal and Jason Williams to lead them to the playoffs.
Wade still weighing his options (AP)Dwyane Wade is still weighing his options. The Miami Heat don’t have the same luxury. If Wade has surgery to repair his dislocated left shoulder, last season’s NBA finals MVP won’t return this season. If Wade chooses rehabilitation and rest, he may return in six weeks, perhaps with 10 games or so left.
Cavs’ Ilgauskas likely to play at Miami (AP)Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who missed the last four games to tend to family health problems, practiced on Saturday and is expected to play at Miami on Sunday, the team said. Ilgauskas hasn’t played since Feb. 11. He is averaging 11.7 points and 8.2 rebounds. Sasha Pavlovic, who has become a key player for the Cavs off the bench, will miss his second straight game because of flu-like…
Brand powers Clippers past Warriors (AP)Elton Brand rejected the notion — rather forcefully — that the Golden State Warriors were going to beat out the Los Angeles Clippers for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Brand tied a career high with eight blocked shots, scored 31 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, leading the Clippers to a 103-90 victory over the Warriors on Saturday.
Bucks beat 76ers to snap seven-game skid (AP)Michael Redd and Mo Williams scored 26 points each and the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers 109-90 on Saturday night to snap a seven-game losing streak. Redd started strong and Williams, who finished 10-of-13 from the field including 5-of-7 from 3-point range, helped finish off Philadelphia, which has now lost five of six despite getting Andre Iguodala back on track.
“I think I can play in two or three weeks,” Nocioni said after sitting out the Bulls’ 105-90 win over the Washington Wizards.
“The playoffs are coming. I want to try to get ready. The problem right now, I need to take care of. If this gets worse, I can probably lose the playoffs. I need to care of this.”
HOUSTON — Just when the Miami Heat were getting back on track, they may have lost the person they can least afford to be without.Dwyane Wade dislocated his left shoulder late in Miami’s 112-102 loss to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night, though the extent of his injury is not yet known.
Those of you who are not aware of this fact, should sit up and take note. NBA basketball betting can make a lot of money for the bettor. NBA basketball betting has turned losers in sports betting to winners. NBA basketball is the easiest game to make money on. The game gives sports bettors many opportunities to place bets and win. The fact that it gives bettors the ability to win till the very end has made it extremely popular amongst sports bettors.
For the skeptics out there let us take a scenario. Say you were to bet a –8 point favorite in football and the game was tied and there is six minutes left. The ball is with the opposing team. In this case do you think you would have a realistic chance of winning? Most probably not. However, in an NBA basketball this is very much possible even if the clock shows two minutes instead of six.
Let us go to another example. The team you bet on is 22 points down at half time. This should not frighten you one bit. Each season NBA has games where a team is down by 10, 15 or 22 points and has come back to win the game. Like I said in the beginning, NBA basketball betting gives you an opportunity to win till the very last second of the game and no other sport has this to offer.
The are some NBA basketball bettors who opt for betting the total points in a game. The bettors who can get a feel for totals betting are amongst the most successful sports bettors. Totals betting at an NBA basketball game is full of winning opportunities and sportsbooks do not set them as well as a spread. This will normally end up winning you more money and increasing your bankroll.
NBA basketball betting is one of the greatest opportunities available to sports bettors and every year sports bettors and handicappers look forward to the NBA season so that they go forth and increase their bankrolls still further.
About the writer: Nigel Kerry is an American free lance writer born in Los Angeles, California. Kerry writes Sportsbook reviews, sport book articles and articles with respect to Sports Betting.
We’ve waited all season long. And with two of the game’s greatest rebounders, two former champions, one of the sport’s best point guards and women’s basketball’s most prolific outside shooter on board, the WNBA Finals promises to be an enticing series. A look at how the teams — which split their regular-season series 1-1, match up position-by-position before the games tip off Wednesday (ESPN2, 7:30 p.m. ET):
Are you interested in betting teasers in the NBA? You need to ask yourself a simple question – do you find betting teasers fun? If you do, and if you bet on sports largely to have fun, then betting teasers is a good idea for you. If, on the other hand, your goal is long-term profit and minimized house edge then you should probably avoid teasers in all but unique and specific situations. Don’t believe me? Let’s have a look.
First, what is a teaser? It’s a bet in which you take two or more teams and add a set amount of points to the lines of each team. In the NBA the most common teasers are 4.5, 5, and 5.5 points, with both higher and lower point totals available from some betting shops. Let’s say you liked the Lakers, who were favored by six, and Cleveland, who were two point underdogs. If you were to bet a 4.5 point teaser then those lines would become Los Angeles -1.5 and Cleveland +6.5. You bet both games on one ticket, and both results have to occur as you need them to in order for you to receive a payout on your ticket. You aren’t limited to just two games, either – you can add more games, and your greater risk is rewarded by a greater monetary return. Some books also have a super teaser that allows you even more points (often seven or more) at a lower payoff.
Teasers slash points off of a favorite’s point spread and add a further cushion to underdog’s, so they sound like a gift to bettors, don’t they? Wrong. So, so wrong. The problem is the house edge that you are sacrificing. A house edge is a fact of life in sports betting (unless you have a lot of degenerate friends you can wager with), but smart bettors look to minimize that edge in order to maximize their profit. Teasers certainly don’t do that. The reason for this is fairly simple to see.
Let’s look at a simple two team, 4.5-point teaser. That wager typically pays out at even money. Since you have to win both games in order to win the bet then, over the long term you have to pick 70.7 percent of games correctly in order to just break even. That’s because .707 * .707 = .50, so if you pick 70.7 percent of games correctly then you will pick both right half of the time. The problem is that a shift in spreads of 4.5 points does not, over the long term, cause the favorites to cover more than 70.7 percent of their games, nor does it cause the underdogs to cover more than that mark. By making this bet over the long term then, you are willingly accepting a losing proposition. The situation doesn’t improve as the points you add get bigger, either. A 5.5-point, two-team teaser typically pays 5-to-6. That means you have to win 73.9 percent of your games to break even. As is the case with parlays, the house edge also gets larger as you add more teams to your parlay.
Though NBA teasers are not profitable over the long run, it is not theoretically impossible that situations could exist where the bet could make sense. All you would need to do is figure out what the break-even point of the bet is and then find situations where the historical occurrence of an outcome comes at a higher rate than the breakeven rate. None come immediately to mind, but, for the sake of argument, let’s say that you were to discover that teams favored by four win 85 percent of their games at home on nights when there is a lunar eclipse. If you were to find a night where the moon and the sun were aligned, and two teams were favored at home by four, then you would have a very worthwhile bet. With a good deal of handicapping work it is feasible that situations like that could be found in the NBA, much like the Wong teaser has been shown to be profitable in the NFL.
Despite the long-term inherent lack of profitability in the NBA teaser, there may be specific situations where a teaser could be attractive. Say, for example, that your handicapping has led you to identify two solid favorites that you like, but which you are lukewarm about. If both teams were favored by seven, and you figure that they will win by somewhere between five and eight points, then you won’t feel confident betting on them on the point spread, but you also wouldn’t feel confident betting on their opponents. You could confidently bet the moneyline, but the return would be low given the size of the spread. By using a four-point teaser you could adjust both point spreads down so that the spreads are below your predicted score. That might be the best way to confidently maximize profit potential given your suspected result.
Teasers aren’t the best bet on the board by any means. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play them, though. Some people love the action and excitement of the wager. You just need to know what you are betting, and what it is costing you. If it still seems worthwhile then go for it.
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