Posted on 4/29/2008 1:20:26 PM

NBA Online Basketball Betting - Pistons Heavy Favorites vs. Sixers

By BetUS Staff

The Detroit Pistons are locked in a heavyweight online sports betting battle with the Philadelphia 76ers, but the NBA betting lines have barely taken notice.

After trading wins (both straight up and against the spread) with the Sixers, the Pistons are priced at –1200 to win this first-round playoff series. That’s the same price as when they began a week ago. Detroit is also a 9-point favorite (–550 on the moneyline) to win Tuesday’s Game 5 at the Palace. That’s down just half a point from Game 1, when the Sixers got the ball rolling with a 90-86 victory.

If the bounce-back pattern holds, Game 5 is Philly’s turn to win. And it can hardly be called a surprise at this point. The Sixers split their four games with Detroit during the regular season as well, coming out ahead 3-1 ATS. The under also went 3-1, as it has during the playoffs thus far. The smaller the point totals, the harder it is for a team to cover a large spread like Detroit is facing Tuesday night.

Devout seamheads will tell you that the public tends to overreact to recent events. But the Sixers have been in Detroit’s grill all year – not to mention outperforming expectations across the league at 40-42 (43-36-3 ATS). A panel of 10 experts at ESPN unanimously picked Philadelphia to miss the playoffs, with most projecting a last-place finish in the Eastern Conference.

The Sixers’ rebuilding project is way ahead of schedule. Thaddeus Young has been one of the best rookies in the NBA at 15.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per 40 minutes, playing his way into the starting rotation at small forward. Louis Williams (19.7 points, 5.4 assists/40) made huge strides in his third year at point guard. And shooting guard Rodney Carney (15.7 points, 5.7 rebounds/40) is an athletic defender off the bench who has helped frustrate Detroit’s Richard Hamilton into 14 turnovers this series. Young, Williams and Carney are all positive players in the plus-minus Roland Ratings, behind only Andre Iguodala among Philly regulars at plus-3.6.

Detroit is still the more talented team on paper, but the young Sixers are holding their own with the right mix of speed and toughness. The NBA odds should have reflected this by now. Perhaps the betting public is too busy watching some of the more marquee matchups in the Western Conference to notice; Tuesday’s Game 5 will be broadcast to the relatively small NBA TV audience starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

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