NBA Handicapping Articles

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, March 3, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/2/2018

You have to like the Houston Rockets' confidence. A while back, young center Clint Capela said his team was better than the Golden State Warriors following a victory over the Dubs. But, Capela perhaps didn't know any better at age 23. James Harden, though, has been around the block. He's not backing down from any challenge, either, saying this week that: "This is the year. For sure," when asked what his expectations for the Rockets are for this season. "This is probably the best team I've ever been a part of, from top to bottom."

Free NBA Picks: Friday, March 2, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/1/2018

Don't sleep on the Denver Nuggets going forward. They already have a really talented roster, but perhaps not an alpha male. That group got better Tuesday when former Atlanta Hawks All-Star forward Paul Millsap, Denver's big offseason acquisition, returned earlier than expected from wrist surgery. He had nine points and seven rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench in his first action since Nov. 19 as Millsap works into game shape.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, March 1, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/28/2018

Another day, another piece of news regarding Spurs star Kawhi Leonard. Not long ago, Gregg Popovich stated publicly that he wasn't planning on Leonard returning this season. Maybe Pop doing such an unusual public proclamation was meant to spur Leonard into action. Appears to have worked if so. Leonard was at the Spurs practice facility for their team practice on Tuesday, but he did not participate. He had spent the previous three weeks in New York seeking further consultation on a right quad injury that has sidelined him for most of the season.

Free NBA Picks: Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/27/2018

Wednesday is a fairly important day in the NBA because it's the last day that teams can add players to where the new addition is eligible for the postseason. So, guys who aren't happy - Minnesota's Shabazz Muhammad comes to mind immediately - will no doubt have their agents negotiating buyouts in order to land with a contender (fairly big names such as Greg Monroe and Joe Johnson are among players who already got buyouts and signed with new teams). For example, once Ersan Ilyasova's buyout is completed with Atlanta, he's expected to sign a deal with Philadelphia.

Free NBA Picks: Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/26/2018

Could be tough for the Minnesota Timberwolves to finish third or fourth in the Western Conference and earn home-court advantage in a first-round playoff series now that All-Star guard Jimmy Butler is going to miss 4-6 weeks following surgery Sunday on his injured meniscus. Butler suffered the noncontact injury in the third quarter of the Timberwolves' loss in Houston (at least it wasn't an ACL) on Friday. Seems especially cruel for Butler because he decided not to play in the All-Star Game so he could get more rest. Any Chicago Bulls fan can tell you that former coach Tom Thibodeau, now leading the Wolves, plays his top guys a little too much. Butler is second in the NBA in averaging 37.1 minutes per game.

NBA Handicapping: Rockets and Warriors Playoff Race
by Trevor Whenham - 2/26/2018

We are in for a real treat down the stretch and into the NBA Playoffs. The Houston Rockets are currently half a game ahead of the Golden State Warriors, and those two are 10.5 and 11 games ahead of third-place San Antonio. It's a two-horse race, which is pretty much what we expected - give or take one team, at least. Both teams are really, really good, and one is going to win the title. Houston is rolling right now, but can they stay ahead? Or is Golden State going to win the West yet again? Let's break down the race from a few different angles:

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/23/2018

For the past 20 years, the San Antonio Spurs have been the NBA's model organization. They have won five titles in that span, made the playoffs every year and won at least 50 games each of the past 18 years - they probably would have all 20 if not for the 1998-99 lockout. The 50-win streak could end this year and the Spurs might be done as we know them because of this unusual Kawhi Leonard situation. Leonard had been limited to nine games this season and not played since Jan. 13 with something called right quad tendinopathy injury.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/21/2018

It's a misnomer to say the NBA's second half of the season begins Thursday night because the next game for some teams will be their 60th in the 82-game slate. That said, the various sportsbooks have released updated futures odds coming out of the All-Star break. BetOnline projects the Houston Rockets to win the most games in the NBA with 63 - Houston was given a total of 54.5 entering the season. The Warriors were at 67.5 but have been downgraded to 62.5. Two big movers have been the Memphis Grizzlies and Indiana Pacers for different reasons. The Grizzlies have barely had star guard Mike Conley this season (he's done), and they are now given a win total of just 27.5 compared to 38.5 back in October.

Updated NBA Futures Odds: Three-Team Race for the Title
by David Anicetti - 2/19/2018

The NBA trade deadline has come and gone, All-Star Weekend has passed and contract buyouts are underway. That means the futures board for the NBA title has been shuffled, but after the dust settled the same two teams are on top of their respective conferences and a new contender has appeared on the scene

NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest Betting Odds and Expert Predictions
by Chris Vasile - 2/15/2018

The NBA season has been nothing short of a soap opera over the last month or so. There are just too many storylines to touch on without making this piece over 3,000 words, so let's just stick to the main talking points. The first: the Cavs just traded their entire roster and got better. The second: the Warriors are complaining they are tired and are desperately trying to get into the break on a winning note. The third: nobody is talking about the upcoming All-Star weekend.

2018 NBA All-Star Three-Point Contest Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Chris Vasile - 2/15/2018

With celebrities and NBA All-Stars set to converge on Tinseltown this coming weekend, I'm going to try my hardest not to get caught up in all the glitz and glamour of all-star weekend. Instead, I'm going to try and turn a profit, much like I've done throughout the first half of the NBA season. The first event I have my eye on is this year's Three-Point Contest.

NBA Betting Trends: Totals Report for Hot Over and Under Teams
by Aaron Smith - 2/14/2018

The trade deadline has passed, and there were quite a few big moves. The Cavs trading away half their roster seemed necessary, and through two games the results look great. Time will tell on those deadline deals. The NBA All-Star Break is this coming weekend. I'd be cautious making too many wagers in the last games before the break and once again in the first games out of the break.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/14/2018

Look, I have no idea who will win Sunday night's All-Star Game from Los Angeles between Team LeBron and Team Stephen, although I do like the new roster setup by captains LeBron James and Stephen Curry drafting players. I guess I'd lean Team Stephen simply because LeBron's team has lost a handful of guys to injuries, led by DeMarcus Cousins and Kristaps Porzingis. Bovada also is offering props on some of the other events this weekend from Staples Center.

NBA Betting Advice: Beware Tanking Teams after All-Star Break
by Trevor Whenham - 2/14/2018

We're beyond the NBA trade deadline. There is still plenty of NBA action left to be played, but for several teams we are at a key time in the schedule - the time when bottom dwellers really commit to tanking. And tanking is a particularly attractive thing to do this year because this is a deep and talented draft with a small handful of players who have the potential to really move a team forward.

Handicapping the NBA Buyout Market
by Trevor Whenham - 2/14/2018

It's buyout time in the NBA - that magical time when washed up veterans suddenly become the missing pieces for teams making a title push. It's a time of hype and speculation - and something to make the post-trade deadline dog days of the NBA interesting. Sometimes buyouts can have a big impact - Joe Johnson joining the Heat in 2016 is a recent example. But most often they don't amount to too much - if the guys were valuable then they wouldn't be available.

Free NBA Picks: Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/13/2018

A total of 24 of the NBA's 30 teams are in action on Wednesday night before just four on Thursday and then the All-Star break. Being honest, Wednesday will be one of the toughest nights of the year to handicap games 24 hours or so ahead of time because I expect that many teams will rest any top players who have even the most minor of injuries or fatigue. Might as well give those guys a full week off rather than throw them out there when their mind might already be on vacation as it is. When players aren't focused, that's when they are more likely to get injured. However, after the break we should be treated to our best basketball of the season for the playoff push (those 10 or so that aren't tanking that is).

Free NBA Picks: Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/12/2018

The marquee matchup of the night in the NBA is Cleveland at Oklahoma City (well, if two banged-up Thunder stars are in the lineup). What makes it even more interesting in my opinion is that it's the last time that LeBron James and Paul George will share the same court this season - sorry, there's not going to be a Cavs-Thunder NBA Finals. Of course, James was trying to get his former GM to land George in a trade this past summer, but that didn't work out reportedly because James wouldn't commit to stay in Cleveland past this season. Last week's trade deadline was notable for the Los Angeles Lakers because they cleared enough salary to have enough cap room to offer James and George max contracts.

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/9/2018

Well, that was quite an NBA trade deadline day, wasn't it? The Golden State Warriors did nothing because they don't need to mess with what they have. The Boston Celtics were quiet. The Clippers kept DeAndre Jordan. What was truly shocking was not that the Cleveland Cavaliers were active but that they essentially overhauled their entire team outside of LeBron James, the injured Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson (who surely was offered around). Gone are Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, Channing Frye, Iman Shumpert and the team's protected 2018 first-round pick - but not that Nets pick. In are the Lakers' Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. along with Sacramento's George Hill and Utah's Rodney Hood.

Expert NBA Handicapping: Milwaukee Bucks a Surprising Contender in East
by Trevor Whenham - 2/9/2018

If the NBA Playoffs were to start today then the Milwaukee Bucks would be hosting a playoff series. The Bucks - long the easiest team to forget about in the league. And, more than that, in a conference that is more wide open than it has been in a very long time you can't laugh at the idea of the team making the Eastern Conference Final. This isn't a great team - certainly far from perfect - but it has a centerpiece any team in the league would kill for, some nice complementary pieces, and a style of play that can be very effective. So, let's take some time to look at this team a little from a betting perspective, shall we?:

Free NBA Picks: Friday, Feb. 9, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/8/2018

You might take a quick glance at Friday's NBA slate and see Clippers-Pistons and Timberwolves-Bulls and think those are two pretty mediocre-to-bad matchups. And maybe neither game will be close, but both are homecoming games for two big-time NBA stars. In Clippers-Pistons, it's Blake Griffin's first game against his former mates since that shocking trade to Detroit late last month. If you say you saw that coming, you are flat-out lying. Not even Griffin did as he expected to be a Clipper for life after signing that huge extension this past summer - why his agent didn't negotiate a no-trade clause, I don't know.