NBA Handicapping Articles

NBA Handicapping: Indiana Pacers Invisible but Playoff Bound
by Trevor Whenham - 3/24/2017

There are a lot of invisible teams in the NBA - teams that go about their business without drawing a whole lot of interest or attention. They are just there - the vanilla ice cream of the league. From where I sit the Indiana Pacers are definitely one of those teams. I'm sitting in a coffee shop writing this right now. I bet that if I asked the 20 people here what the NBA team in Indianapolis is called, not half would know the answer. And even among those that call themselves basketball fans to some degree I bet not more than one would be able to name their current number of wins within, say, five. Granted, I don't live in a basketball heartland, but you get my point.

Free NBA Picks: Friday, March 24, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/23/2017

OK, now we see what size cajones that Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue and GM David Griffin have. Of course teams resting stars has been a hot topic around the NBA all week after Lue sat LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love last Saturday night in a national TV game. The NBA league office e-mailed its unhappiness to Griffin, who basically told the NBA to MYOB, and early this week Commissioner Adam Silver sent a memo to all 30 team owners saying that resting key players has become a major issue and will be addressed at the next meeting.

NBA Handicapping: What to Make of Odd Warriors Season Thus Far
by Trevor Whenham - 3/23/2017

The Golden State Warriors have won five in a row - though they haven't exactly played elite squads over that stretch, so it really doesn't prove much. The bigger concern, or at least the bigger cause for interest, is that they had lost five of seven before that. Teams go through funks, but it had been a couple of years since we had seen even a glimpse of regular-season mortality from this Golden State squad. It was easy to assume that they were above that.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, March 23, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/22/2017

With the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 tipping off opposite the NBA action on Thursday, you are going to be seeing a lot of stars playing potentially their final games in college basketball as the waves of draft declarations will begin when their teams lose. For example, Oklahoma State star sophomore guard Jawun Evans announced his decision on Tuesday. Both Kansas and Arizona play Thursday night - I think they both win, though -- and it's presumed their star freshmen, Josh Jackson and Lauri Markkanen, respectively, will be playing for money next year. Oregon is a slight underdog to Michigan on Thursday in the Midwest, and it could be the final game for Ducks star Dillon Brooks, the Pac-12 Player of the Year.

Free NBA Picks: Wednesday, March 22, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/21/2017

If before this season you projected that the Philadelphia 76ers would be the best against the spread team in the NBA, kudos to you because I surely didn't. I also expected the Sixers to start losing more games ATS once they ruled out Rookie of the Year candidate Joel Embiid for the season. Yet there the team is atop the ATS standings, and it has covered an NBA-high seven straight games entering Wednesday. The 76ers continue to play hard for Coach Brett Brown, although they have the fifth-worst record in the NBA.

Free NBA Picks: Tuesday, March 21, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/20/2017

For the second week in a row, the ABC Saturday night showcase game was ruined by a team resting its star players. This time it was Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue sitting LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love at the Clippers (who predictably won easily). Irving supposedly was dealing with a minor injury and Love just returned from a long absence due to a knee problem, but LeBron was fine. Cavs GM David Griffin got a call from the league office shortly after the team announced its decision Saturday. On the telecast, ABC's Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy called the decision "an absolute joke" and "a prosecutable offense." They are also former head coaches, and I'm sure rested a guy or two who could have played back in their day.

NBA Betting Trends: Totals Report for Hot Over and Under Teams
by Aaron Smith - 3/20/2017

The Golden State Warriors let the San Antonio Spurs back in the race for the top spot in the Western Conference, but the Spurs have dropped two of their last three games to fall behind by two games once again. In the Eastern Conference, the first seed (Cleveland) and the fourth seed (Toronto) are only 5.5 games apart. Also, only 1.5 games separate the No. 6 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff standings (Pacers) from the No. 9 spot (Heat). There's plenty left to be decided.

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, March 18, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/17/2017

The Dwyane Wade Experiment has been a failure with the Chicago Bulls, and it could be over for good. No one really understood what the Bulls were doing this past offseason when they signed Rajon Rondo and Wade when they were supposed to rebuilding around Jimmy Butler. Wade at least made some sense from a marketing perspective as the future Hall of Famer was returning to his hometown and still was a good player. Wade only left the Heat, however, because he was low-balled in contract negotiations. Wade's season is over with a sprain and small fracture in his right elbow. He averaged 18.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists but was forced to sit out a handful of games (most in the second of a back-to-back).

Free NBA Picks: Friday, March 17, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/16/2017

No NBA head coach has been fired this season, and I doubt one is at this point, although there will be openings after the regular season. Will we see a top college coach head to the NBA? There has been very mixed success with the pros dipping into the college ranks. Billy Donovan has been good with Oklahoma City. John Calipari flopped years ago with the Nets, but you continue to hear his name linked to the New Orleans Pelicans - and that job will be open assuming the Pels miss the playoffs - because two of Coach Cal's former UK stars, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins, are on the team.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, March 16, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/15/2017

I don't know about you, but I generally avoid pregame, halftime or post-game TV shows when it comes to sports programming. Back in the old days they were useful for injury updates or weather, etc. Thanks to the Internet, I can find out all I want myself. That said, TNT's Thursday night NBA telecasts are must-see TV during halftime and after games because of their great studio team of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith - not so much Shaq.

Free NBA Picks: Wednesday, March 15, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/14/2017

Has there ever been a season where the top NBA contenders have been dealing with such serious health issues? You have Kevin Love (and to a lesser extent Andrew Bogut) with the Cavaliers, Kevin Durant with the Warriors and now LaMarcus Aldridge with the Spurs. He's out indefinitely with a "minor heart arrhythmia." Most times when an NBA player is ruled out indefinitely, the team has a pretty good idea when that player will return. This obviously isn't a broken bone or pulled muscle for which doctors can forecast a recovery time. The Spurs will not win the West without Aldridge, but if history is any indication he should be back well before the playoffs.

Free NBA Picks: Tuesday, March 14, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/13/2017

In the spirit of the NCAA Tournament bracket being released on Sunday, the school with the most current players in the NBA probably won't surprise you: Kentucky. Just think how good a Kentucky-only team would be. A backcourt of John Wall and Eric Bledsoe (or Devin Booker) and a frontcourt of Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns and DeMarcus Cousins.

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, March 11, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/10/2017

Sometimes the leads to these daily stories simply write themselves, and that's the case for Saturday's NBA schedule - frankly, the last Saturday some sports bettors might care much about the NBA until after the NCAA Tournament's Final Four. I believe the most important game the rest of the 2016-17 regular season is Golden State at San Antonio on Saturday night -- if the Spurs win.

NBA Handicapping: Utah Jazz Quietly Getting Job Done
by Trevor Whenham - 3/10/2017

There are teams in the NBA that are good and get a lot of the attention - almost all of it, really. And there are teams that are so bad, and so overrun with drama, that they get more than they deserve - like the Lakers and the Knicks. Somewhere between those two extremes operate teams like the Utah Jazz.

Free NBA Picks: Friday, March 10, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/9/2017

All the talking head wonks on Wednesday were discussing whether the Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki is a Top-10 player all-time after becoming the sixth in NBA history (seventh if you count Dr. J's ABA points) to reach 30,000 career points. Dirk, Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant are the only players to score at least 30,000 points for one team. If Nowitzki plays each of Dallas' remaining 19 games and continues to average 13.9 PPG this season, he would finish with roughly 30,269 points.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, March 9, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/8/2017

I don't want to say that the broken leg suffered by Cavs center Andrew Bogut just 58 seconds into his Cleveland debut earlier this week is going to shape who wins the NBA Finals, but that will hurt LeBron James & Co. If there's one thing that team is missing, it's rim protection. Tristan Thompson is OK, but Kevin Love plays out on the perimeter. The Cavs are thin with bigs behind them, and of course Love is already hurt. Bogut remains a good defender, passer and rebounder.

Free NBA Picks: Wednesday, March 8, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/7/2017

Some around the NBA believe that the Golden State Warriors didn't repeat last season partly because of the Boston Celtics, specifically C's coach Brad Stevens. You see, Stevens seemed to show a blueprint how to beat the record-setting Warriors. Boston went to Oakland last April 1 and upset the Warriors 109-106, ending their NBA-record 54-game winning streak in the regular season at Oracle Arena.

Free NBA Picks: Tuesday, March 7, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/6/2017

Thanks largely to Russell Westbrook's 30 and James Harden's 15, the NBA season already has set a record for total triple-doubles. It happened Saturday when San Antonio beat Minnesota in overtime and the Timberwolves' Ricky Rubio had 11 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. It was the 79th triple-double this season and Rubio was the 21st player with at least one. The previous mark of 78 was set in 1988-89. Magic Johnson led the NBA with 17 that season and Michael Jordan had 15. The way Westbrook is going, we could see 100 triple-doubles.

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, March 4, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/3/2017

I haven't seen NBA Rookie of the Year odds at any of Doc's listed sportsbooks for a few weeks. It's tough with odds like those because they often are only active for a day or two. They should be posted again very soon now that there's clarity on Philadelphia's Joel Embiid being ruled out the rest of the season. He had been a -2000 favorite the last time I saw the odds. I will be very interested to see the new numbers because can the NBA's top rookie play just 31 games and not even 30 minutes in any of those?

Free NBA Picks: Friday, March 3, 2017, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 3/2/2017

The knee strain and bone bruise Kevin Durant suffered on Tuesday night at Washington that will keep him out at least four weeks really should only affect one of your futures tickets regarding the Golden State Warriors: their season wins total. Coming out of the All-Star break, the Dubs were given a total of 67.5 wins at 5Dimes. I thought they might come just under that because Coach Steve Kerr was going to make sure his stars were rested and fresh entering the playoffs after chasing 73 wins last season backfired a bit. Now I think the Warriors (50-10 entering Thursday) will finish surely under and absolutely will not become the first team with back-to-back 70-win seasons.