NBA Handicapping Articles

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/16/2016

The New Orleans Pelicans don't play Saturday night, but they might become a pretty decent bet going forward. The Pels have been very competitive whenever starting point guard Jrue Holiday has been in the lineup, which hasn't been all that often yet due to some personal leave and minor injuries. And on Thursday, the team welcomed back its third-best player in swingman Tyreke Evans. It was his first game in nine months.

Free NBA Picks: Friday, Dec. 16, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/15/2016

My second-favorite sport to watch and bet on after football -- I group the NFL and NCAA into one -- is the NBA. I follow it passionately, and that's the sport I hoped to play as a kid. But I'm glad I don't live in a city with a team. Why? I would definitely plan to go to many games, only to likely be frustrated when the opposing team decided to rest a key guy or two because apparently multi-millionaires aren't expected to work every day.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/14/2016

So Thursday is an important day for the future of the NBA as the owners and NBA Players' Association both have until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement. The current deal, borne from the 2011 lockout, was a 10-year agreement with the opt-out window after five years. That's going to happen, but it won't affect this season as the sides would have until the end of June to negotiate a new contract.

Free NBA Picks: Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/13/2016

Big men who can't shoot from range have lost a ton of value in the NBA in the past few years with 3-pointers skyrocketing. Back when the Houston Rockets signed 7-footer Omer Asik as a restricted free agent following his breakout 2011-12 season with Chicago, it looked like a smart deal. But guys like Asik are almost dinosaurs nowadays. Asik is now with New Orleans and isn't even playing an average of 18 minutes a night. He'll give you good defense and rebounding, but the Pelicans have officially put him on trading block because they want to play up tempo and Asik can't do that. The problem with finding a taker is that Asik is due more than $33 million over the next three seasons, which is too high even in the cash-flush league. But if the Pelicans take a similar contract back, they probably will find a club willing to deal.

Free NBA Picks: Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/12/2016

I thought that the Minnesota Timberwolves would be one of the most improved teams in the NBA this season and perhaps could sniff the final playoff spot in the Western Conference after hiring Tom Thibodeau as the team's new head coach (and personnel boss) this offseason. So far, it hasn't gone well for Thibs and the Wolves, but they'll be really good within a couple of years. And I think it's fair to say if there's one victory this season that Thibodeau wants for his team and perhaps more for himself is Tuesday when Minnesota visits Chicago.

NBA Betting Advice: Handicapping the Miami Heat
by Trevor Whenham - 12/9/2016

The Miami Heat just aren't very good right now. It's not like they faced major expectations coming into the season, either - their season win total sat at just 34.5 entering the season. At 7-15 they are well under that pace, though, and they have dropped seven of their last 10 so they aren't exactly trending upwards. They sit at 10-12 ATS, so they aren't burning things up at the betting window either way - you can't make serious money betting on them or betting against them.

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/9/2016

I'm not a big Los Angeles Clippers fan, but they are an entertaining team to watch. I want them to do well for that reason and because I so dislike the Lakers and thus want the Clips to own that town, even if briefly. While I don't want to overreact to one NBA regular-season game in early December, I have little faith now that the Clippers can give the Warriors a fight in a potential playoff series -- meaning this team is probably going to be broken up next offseason. L.A.'s first true litmus test of the season was Wednesday night at home against Golden State, and the Clippers failed miserably in a 115-98 loss that didn't even feel that close.

Free NBA Picks: Friday, Dec. 9, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/8/2016

All eyes Friday night will clearly be on the Houston-Oklahoma City game, not so much because either side is a championship contender but to see if the incomparable Russell Westbrook can have a seventh straight triple-double. Do you know how many Hall of Famers didn't even have six triple-doubles in their careers? Westbrook is the first player with a triple-double in six consecutive games since Michael Jordan had seven straight in 1989.

Free NBA Betting Picks: Season-Long Utah Jazz Analysis and Expert Predictions
by Chris Vasile - 12/8/2016

If you take a look at the Western Conference standings right now, you will see the usual suspects in the mix for a postseason berth. However, there is more of a log jam throughout the top eight seeds this year. The eighth-place Portland Trailblazers sit just 3.5 games back of fourth in the conference. I would like nothing more than to chalk this up as parity early in the season, but the actual reason the standings look the way they do is because the Western Conference is just simply better than the East.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/7/2016

Anthony Davis has been in the NBA since the 2012-13 season but is just 23 years old because he left Kentucky after one fabulous freshman season. Davis is now easily a Top-5 player in the NBA and on a monstrous contract. Joel Embiid is playing his rookie NBA season but is already 22 because of course he missed what were to have been his first two seasons due to foot troubles. I am mega-excited to see Davis and Embiid face off for the first time ever, barring some AAU game or something back in their youth that I don't know about, on Thursday night when New Orleans hosts Philadelphia in a game that otherwise would get little attention.

Free NBA Picks: Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/6/2016

With all due respect to the San Antonio Spurs, I believe just one team is talented enough to win the Western Conference this season over Golden State and that's the Los Angeles Clippers (not that I'm predicting that). Their Big 3 of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan is as almost as good as Golden State's Big 3. And this year, the Clippers might actually have a better bench after the Warriors had to dump some guys this offseason after adding Kevin Durant's big salary. Believe it or not, the Clippers' five-man reserve unit of Austin Rivers, Jamal Crawford, Marreese Speights (a former Warrior), Raymond Felton and Wesley Johnson, statistically, is the second-best defensive group in the NBA.

Free NBA Picks: Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/5/2016

A lot of people around the NBA snickered when the Chicago Bulls signed Rajon Rondo in free agency this past offseason. You look simply at his statistics last year with the Sacramento Kings and they don't look too bad. But those are very empty numbers. The guy can't shoot and is now a major liability on both ends of the floor. And on top of all that, he reportedly isn't a great teammate with an attitude these days.

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/2/2016

The Brooklyn Nets stink and with probably the least-talented roster in the NBA and their next two first-round draft picks owed to the Boston Celtics in one form or another, they are going to stink for a while. So why not take a shot on a solid restricted free agent even if the other team matches? That's apparently going to be the case as the Nets are set to sign Houston forward Donatas Motiejunas to an offer sheet. The Rockets and the Lithuanian have been at a contract impasse all season and the team recently pulled its best offer so he hasn't played this year.

NBA Betting Trends: Totals Report for Hot Over and Under Teams
by Aaron Smith - 12/2/2016

The NBA season is now more than a month old. There haven't been as many early-season surprises this year as there are in most seasons. Charlotte has been a bit of a surprise in the Eastern Conference as they sit atop the NBA Southeast. In the Western Conference, the Memphis Grizzlies are a solid surprise at 12-8 on the year so far, but with Mike Conley going down with an injury you have to wonder how they'll do in the next few weeks.

NBA Betting and Handicapping: Will Disappointing Teams Continue to Struggle?
by Trevor Whenham - 12/2/2016

We're not quite a quarter of the way through the NBA season, and yet we have already seen several teams go to great lengths to prove that any faith you might have had in them heading into the season was misplaced. You might have thought they were going to be good, but they are working hard to show you that that might not be the case. Here, up to this point, are the five most disappointing teams in the NBA according to my eyes:

Free NBA Picks: Friday, Dec. 2, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 12/1/2016

If you are a Cubs or Indians fan or just like to see millionaire athletes pay off their silly bets, you should tune into ESPN before Friday's Cavaliers at Bulls game. That's because Cleveland's LeBron James and Chicago's Dwyane Wade, good buddies, made a wager on the Indians-Cubs World Series. Of course the Cubs rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to win the Fall Classic in Game 7 in Cleveland with LeBron in attendance.

NBA Handicapping: Teams with Fading Playoff Hopes
by Trevor Whenham - 12/1/2016

The NBA isn't even a quarter of the way through the season. It's a baby. If it was human it wouldn't be able to dress itself alone. Yet, for some teams we have already seen too much - or at least enough to know what we have. Yes, on the first day of December I feel confident enough to deem the seasons of eight teams - four in each conference - over already. They are already playing out the string and building towards next year. It's not happening this year.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 11/30/2016

I don't want to make a blanket statement in saying that you should totally bet against the Memphis Grizzlies and go under their totals for the next six weeks or so because it obviously depends on the opponent. But I'm certainly going to be leaning that way most nights with the news that Grizzles point guard Mike Conley is likely going to miss that much time with a transverse process fracture in his vertebrae suffered Monday against Charlotte.

NBA Betting Advice Handicapping: Hot and Cold Teams ATS
by Victor Ryan - 11/29/2016

James Harden in Mike D'Antoni's fast-paced offensive system has been a match made in basketball heaven. The enigmatic Harden has done it all for the Rockets this season, including dishing out an NBA-high 12.2 assists per game. It was just last season that Harden took "isolation" basketball to a whole other level, consistently dribbling down the shot clock before hoisting the rock while his teammates stood and watched.

Free NBA Picks: Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 11/29/2016

You won't see Pacers superstar Paul George on Wednesday night when Indiana visits Portland to begin a five-game road trip through the Western Conference. George has missed the past two and five of the last six games with an ankle injury that has been bothering George since at least Nov. 11, when he first missed a contest against the Boston Celtics because of the injury. George got off to a great start this season but is just 19-for-56 in his past three games that he has played.