Bet on Basketball

Atlanta Hawks, who beat Toronto last night, is meeting the Seattle Supersonics at home. Joe Johnson’s high scoring play leads his team to score over 100 points per game. Similarly, Seattle implements a similar game to the Hawks, and this game can be bet on to finish over 201.5 points.

Isaah Thomas’ New York Knicks have been a surprise at the beginning of the season, beating powerful opponents and having a few games that they couldn’t finish off. They like to play in high tempo, but their defensive ability can be easily interrogated. San Antonio continues its steady trend, i.e they play as they did before. Popovic refers to Duncan when the things are not in his head, Ginobili performs his magicplay, and Barry fires three-point field goals like he has already scored 20000 times before! Spurs are one of the most challenging teams in their home games. We are going to see how easy they will do it into the end of the game against the Knicks. We like San Antonio –13 as our pick.

Having lost to Indiana last night, Orlando is going to try for a win to continue their hopes for the playoffs. On the other hand, Minnesota is waiting for their opponent at home. Kevin Garnett’s plain performance in previous games cannot produce a hope for a win on Minnesota side, however. Also, Dwight Howard is the biggest nominee of the players who can play best against Garnett, the most efficient player last season. Orlando may suffer some fatigue problems, but Orlando can be said not to fall back in great figures in this game. Orlando +4.5 handicap is the pick.

Orlando Magic are going to challenge Indiana Pacers tonight after a close win against Seattle Supersonics two days ago. Hedo Turkoglu played an important role in that match, so everyone will have an eye on him tonight too. Orlando executes team defense well, but Indiana can score as well. So, a close match between these two teams can be expected. Orlando +5 is a rational pick.

In tonight’s big match, the last years champions, Miami Heat, are traveling to New Jersey to get out to the court against the Nets. The former’s last match performance against Jazz indicates that this season Carter and his crew will not give up trying hard even if they fall behind over 10 points. On the other side, Miami reorganized the lineup so that every man on the team has a unique role, and they have been playing well in their last three games, two of which they won. This game is an open check for an overtime, but it is certain that New Jersey is going to try their best at home. New Jersey ML is a good choice (currently around -185)

Houston is going to welcome New York Knicks, who beat Denver surprisingly on Wednesday night. The Knicks’ main principle is to shoot as many as they can in a game, and try to be a fast team resembling Phoenix Suns, but they do not have a high quality guard like Nash. So, Knicks may score over 100, but they can concede 120 as well. Especially, Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady in good condition are the worst news for the New York Knicks because they do not have this much defensive capability. Game total over 194 is the pick.

In the first game of the night, Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers are going to fight for a win before the weekend. LeBron James’ high scoring ability is likely to continue tonight against perhaps the league’s best defender Ben Wallace. In Chicago’s offense, Heinrich and Gordon will not face much difficulty, so this game will probably finish over 183.5 points.

Dallas, having started this season with one of their worst streaks in the franchise history, 0-4, must really go hard tonight to beat the Suns at Phoenix, who lost against San Antonio last night after Barbosa missed his second free throw leading the game to go overtime. Phoenix, with the highest tempo possible, is smashing their opponents in home games, but the players are experiencing fatigue problems near the end of the third period. However, Amare Stoudamire, who started in the lineup last night first time in the season and dominated the paint scores of the Suns in the first half of the game, will be very effective against Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks. The game can be bet on with Phoenix ML.

The only defeatless team in the NBA so far is traveling to Golden State to have their fifth win and maintain hopes for the playoffs. Chris Paul’s leadership plays a substantial role in New Orleans’ positive gameplay, but their opponents are not easy tonight. Golden State, though not successful in defense, can be very productive in the offense, so the pick for this game is over 195.5 points.

Four from four correct selections yesterday leaving us +4 units for the season to date. The winning bets were Atlanta +9.5 (ATL won 104-95), Houston v Memphis total game points under 179 (total was 166) and Houston under 95 points (they scored 86) and finally, New Orleans to win, and they did 97-93.

Here are today’s NBA picks:

Seattle Supersonics and Orlando Magic will challenge tonight after the former team’s close loss against Miami, last years champions. Orlando must win this game in order to show both its fans and the NBA community that they are actually there to play this season, looking for a play-off ticket. Seattle is going to encounter severe trouble stopping Dwight Howard, so a handicap of -6.5 on behalf of Orlando is a reasonable pick for tonight.

One of the best things Isaah Thomas contributed to the Knicks this season as a head-coach is the motivation to win. Tonight, the New York Knicks are going to try their chances against one of the strongest teams in the West, the Denver Nuggets. Neither team is a defensive team, so Camelo Anthony must be expected to erupt in this game provided his first shots don’t miss. The Knicks can certainly finish this game with a margin of less than 10 points and the pick is the New York Knicks at +10.

If we are to interrogate what Marc Cuban’s Dallas team is doing this season, we must start with the coach’s game strategy. Against San Antonio, they led the game until the start of the last period, fell back and struggled to come back after that indicating the pessimistic effect of the loss of championship last season against Miami (who came back from 2-0 to win the series 4-2). However, Dallas MUST win this game against the Clippers, and they have the ability to do that. Considering the weakness observed in the power forward position of the home team, Dirk Nowitzki is likely to perform well. Dallas ML is the pick.

Atlanta and Cleveland are going to challenge tonight in order to finish NBA Opening Week with a good win. Two teams both will try to defend their opponent second time in this season. Rising performance of Joe Johnson, former Phoenix Suns player, seems to be effective. On the other hand, LeBron James and his teammates will struggle to create a team with the least defeats at home this season, so a close game can be foreseen. A handicap of +9.5 for Atlanta could be a good choice.

In today’s match between the Rockets and the Grizzlies, the latter being the best defensive team of the last season, we will not have much chance to see total points higher than 179. Tracy McGrady started the season by struggling in points, but team’s defensive work is mostly handled by the Chinese pivot Yao Ming. On Memphis side, Gasol’s injury lowers the field goals made per match, and the Grizzlies have such a slow tempo in a game so they can hardly reach 95+ points in a game against a team implementing physically hard defense.

After yesterday’s exhaustive win against the Mavericks, Golden State will try for their second in a row against New Orleans Hornets, who defeated Houston Rockets two days ago. Best choice for this game should be ML for the home team mainly due to the physical factors. Golden State, while challenging Dallas last night, performed their best to reach 100+ points, and the there were no players on the court to deliver 30+ points to the opponent’s basket. Still, Chris Paul’s great play on assists will help the Hornets to finish the night with a close win.