Posted on 1/21/2008 2:42:02 PM

Basketball Betting Trends - It’s Time For Round-Ball

By D. S. Williamson

My advice to all of those football bettors out there is to stop crying in your beer and don’t miss out on real gambling. Now, I’m not saying that gambling on football isn’t real. Heck, it’s very real, but it doesn’t present nearly the amount of opportunities as wagering on the NBA does. I mean, in football you’ve got to wait until the weekend to place your wagers. Big East Thursday on ESPN (okay, the network does show more than just the Big East!) is only one game. What the hell is that?

The NBA is a different animal. Between Wednesday, January 23 thru Sunday, January 27th - - a span of 5 days - - the NBA will play 42 games. Are you kidding me, Becky? That’s 42 chances for the astute NBA bettor to make money. Every game, by the way, is offered on BetUS. All you have to do is log-in and take a look at the lines.

What teams should you wager on? Well, that’s where the BetUS Locker Room comes into play. My compadres and I spend a lot of time coming up with NBA winners each and every day. We take pride in it. We’re not saying that we’re always right. Heck, we’re not saying that you should take our advice all of the time. But what we are saying is that you would do yourself a lot of good by reading about our picks. Why? Because you might find something in our articles that you hadn’t thought about.

When money is on the line, you need to pay attention - - to everything!

Okay, let’s talk about some trends that have been absolutely overpowering so far this season in the NBA:

1. If a team is awesome straight-up, like the Spurs or Pistons, they tend to play down to their competition. This isn’t just true for the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons, it’s true for the Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic, and Boston Celtics. Whenever any of these teams is favored by more than 10 points, take a hard look at specific team trends. More than likely, you will want to take the Dog and the points.

2. There are road teams and then there are road teams. What this means is that you shouldn’t be fooled by a team like the Cleveland Cavaliers winning on the road against the San Antonio Spurs, okay? Cleveland is a HOT team. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to do magnificent things on the road from now on. In their past ten games Cleveland lost, against the spread, on the road to the New Orleans Hornets and the Atlanta Hawks. A HOT team could win three, four, five games in a row against the spread and then go back to their old ways. A good road team is somebody like the Portland Trailblazers. These guys are good on the road and hot. Portland beats or covers spread. It appears to be in their nature as they’ve gone 6 and 3 against the spread in their last nine. That gives NBA bettors something to work with.

3. Historical match-ups tend to follow history. When the Bulls play the Pistons or when the Pistons play the Knicks or when the Suns play the Lakers, the underdog can do some serious damage. This doesn’t happen all of the time, but you can find good money-line wagers when teams with history get together. The Spurs versus the Rockets is another one. For some reason, rivalry games have been fairly prominent this year. Look for money-line wagers whenever two teams face each other and one should whollop the other one. Again, don’t wager on every game like this, but look for it. Right now, I’d take Golden State in a money-line wager versus the Dallas Mavericks no matter what the situation. Golden State isn’t as good as Dallas, but they always play them tough. When wagering on the money-line, you want to give yourself a chance.

The best team to wager on right now is the Portland Trailblazers. They’ve lost two out of their last three games against the spread. What does that mean? That the spreads against or for this team should work to the NBA bettors’ advantage. Portland is the only team that stands out to me as someone you might want to always wager on. Portland and, of course, anybody who plays the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat are a fantastic team to wager against this year. You can take that trend to the bank!

Let’s talk about some games this Friday, the 25th of January:

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Dallas Mavericks = The Dallas Mavericks have been hot straight-up and the Lakers are without center Andrew Bynum. Although it’s always hard to predict, I’m going to say that the BetUS line in this game falls between 5.5 to 7.5 points. So, Dallas – 5.5 or – 7.5. Hmm, this is a toughie. I tend to put too much faith into the Kobester in these situations, but the Mavericks still haven’t shown me a whole lot this year. They went on a four game winning streak just the other week. Whoop-de-doo. Three of the four teams they beat were the T’Wolves, Sonics, and Clippers. So, I’m going with the Lakers.

Free Pick: Lakers at + 5.5 or more.

Orlando Magic vs. Detroit Pistons = This is the sort of game where the Pistons step it up. If they were playing the Knicks or the Hawks or the Bulls, I’d go against the Pistons in this one, but playing the Magic, a team that could challenge them in the Eastern Conference, means that Rasheed, Chauncey, and Rip do some damage. I like the Pistons in this game. The line could be anywhere from 3.5 to 7 points. No worries. The Pistons should cover.

Free Pick: Pistons at -7 or less.

Philadelphia 76’ers vs. New York Knicks = Don’t look now, but the Knicks are - - okay, they still suck, but do they suck to the point of losing to the 76’ers at home? I don’t know about that. New York has beaten both the Houston Rockets and the Toronto Raptors in their last three games. By the time this thing comes around, the Knicks may have beaten Boston! Yeah, right. The last time these two teams met the 76’ers beat the Knicks by 28 points. It won’t be that bad, but it won’t have to for us to win. Let’s say the line is 76’ers – 2.5 to – 3.5. I like them to cover. Who knows? They may go off as the underdogs in this one!

Free Pick: 76’ers at – 3.5 or less.

Phoenix Suns vs. Cleveland Cavaliers = The Suns go to Cleveland and take on King James and the Cavs. This should be a drag-out, tough game, as I just don’t see King James letting this get out of control. I used the same philosophy to lose money on the Lakers when the Suns beat them last week, but hey, this is a totally different game, right? I have to stick to my philosophy which says the Suns play down in games versus lesser teams. Make no mistake, the Cavs are a lesser team. Let’s predict the BetUS line to be around Suns – 3.5 to minus – 5.5. In that case, the Cavs are not only a solid wager to beat the spread, but also a solid wager to win outright. Can anybody say money-line?

Free Pick: Cavs money-line.

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