NBA PREVIEWS

Detroit @ Atlanta

Detroit really seems to be picking up without Iverson and the truth is that they have won their last four games without him. And we are talking about four quality wins. They won at Orlando and at Boston and then defeated Denver and Golden State at home. The most impressive is that they held four of the best offenses of the league to 85, 95, 95 and 91 points! The Pistons really seem to be coming back to what they were in the past few seasons, but now they will be facing the Hawks on the road, a team they tradicionally struggle against. The Pistons are 3-9 ATS against the Hawks in their last 12 meetings and Atlanta has already won two games against them this season, one at home and one on the road. The Hawks are coming from two road losses, but they are a different team at home, where they have a great 20-7 record. This promises to be a really close match between two teams who will be fighting for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs until the last week of the regular season.


Miami @ Cleveland

Dwayne Wade is really carrying the Heat right now with some astonishing performance and the truth is that Miami is currently ahead of teams like Detroit and Philadelphia in the standings right now. This will be the second time in less than a week that these two teams will face each other, as Cleveland won at Miami by 107-100 last Monday. The Cavs are coming from a tough defeat as Boston last night, but we all know how they play at home and the proof of that is their 25-6 ATS record in their last 31 home games. Still one of the times they didn't cover the spread during this span was against Miami earlier this season. It's true that the Cavs are coming mad to this game, while the Heat are coming from a great win at Toronto, but do we really want to lay almost 10 points on a team who will face the red hot Dwayne Wade tonight?


Charlotte @ New York

Really contrast of styles in this game between the run and gun Knicks and the defensive Bobcats. Charlotte has won their last five games and once again last night, they showed their good form by taking out the Hawks by 98-91. The main problem for them is to play on the road, where they have a poor 9-20 record. The Knicks were struggling until they got a great home win against the Hawks. But Nate and Jeffries are questionable for this match and especially Nate is one of the most important pieces of the Knicks' puzzle. New York is 2-0 against the Bobcats this season, but Charlotte really seems to be the better team of the two right now. With such a contrast of styles, it's hard to predict something in this matchup.


Philadelphia @ Memphis

This will be a match between two teams who aren't exactly in top form right now. The Sixers are 2-7 ATS in their last 9 matches and they have lost their last two games at home against the Hornets and Orlando. However their last game was last Monday, so they had plenty of time to rest for this game. On the other side, Memphis is 3-10 ATS in their last 13 home games, but they are actually coming from a rare road win against the Clippers. The Grizzlies don't have a lot to fight for, but they have actually been competitive in the last games, including a nice fight in LA against the Lakers. Both teams are rested and the Sixers really look to have a nice spot to get an important win in here, but can we trust them in a road underdog spot? Note that the under is 9-1-1 in the last 12 matches between these two teams.


Oklahoma City @ New Orleans

The Hornets are really getting into form and they have won their last 6 games. But one thing is winning and other thing is covering the spread and while the Hornets have won their last 6 games, they went 2-4 ATS in those games. Still those games were tough ones, including home games against Dallas and Detroit and road games against Philadelphia and New Jersey. The Hornets aren't still totally clean from injuries, as Peja and Peterson are currently injured. On the other side, the Thunder have surprisingly won their last three matches, even without Durant in these three matches and also Green in the last two. But this match will be much tougher, as they will play against a top team on the road, where the missing of these two players will be more explored. The Hornets are returning to be double digits favorites due to their good run and it's not clear in my opinion how they will behave today in such spot against a confident team who doesn't show to be missing their best two players.


Golden State @Milwaukee

Two struggling teams are going head to head in here. Milwaukee has lost 7 of their last 9 games and the fact that they are without Bogut and Redd is really getting into the performance of the team. They lost their last two matches by 18 and 15 points at Cleveland and Chicago, so they will have a good chance to bounce back tonight at home against the lowly Warriors. But be careful with the lowly Warriors! It's true that they are 6-26 on the road this season and they are currently 7-21-2 ATS on their last 30 road games, however they use to get their wins when nobody expects them to happen and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Warriors bouncing back tonight after two very tough losses at Chicago and Detroit. There are a lot of injuries on the Warriors, but they don't lack scorers on their roster and in a run and gun game against a team who is missing two of their best scorers, everything can really happen in here.


Washington @ Dallas

If the Wizards are horrible by nature this season, they only got much worse now that they have been playing without Butler. However the sportsbooks also now that and I expect a really big line for the Mavs to cover and they have Howard questionable for this matchup and we can't say that they a great team in covering large spreads. Washington lost at San Antonio last night by 78-100 and they can't really get nothing going on the offense. But the real question in here is to know if we can trust Dallas a big favorite. They are 1-4 ATS this season as a home favorite by more than 12 points and I wouldn't be surprised if the Wizards are capable of being kinda competitive tonight. Note that Butler is questionable for tonight, so he hasn't been ruled out of tonight's game.


Minnesota @ Portland

The Wolves can't really catch a break right now and after getting trashed by the Lakers last night, they will play tonight at Portland, in another match which promises to be a really tough game for them. Minnesota can't really be competitive without Al Jefferson and they are 2-12 ATS on their last 14 games! On the other side, Portland is coming from a tough defeat at Denver in a TNT game last Thursday and they will now try to bounce back at home against the lowly Wolves. The problem in backing the Blazers is really the large spread. Portland will host the Lakers next Monday and then Dallas next Wednesday, so a lookahead spot for the Blazers isn't out of question, especially when the standings in the Western conference show how almost all top teams are so close to each other.


Indiana @ LA Clippers

Both teams are coming to this matchup rested, as they haven't played since last Wednesday. The Pacers were extremely competitive in Portland and considering they are playing without Granger and Dunleavy, this is really great news for them. They still have a tiny shot at reaching the Playoffs, but they know that unless they make an amazing road trip, they will out of the contention soon. The problem is really their poor road record and the fact that they are without their best scorer who is averaging 25 points per game this season. On the other side, the Clippers are fighting for nothing right now, but they have talent enough on their roster to be competitive in games like this one. Eric Gordon will return tonight to the lineup and we know that the Pacers aren't exactly a very consistent team and the fact this is their last game of the road trip really makes me think that this may be a flat spot for them. However, can we really trust the worst home team of the league to beat them? I am not so sure.

 FREE PICK

Oklahoma City Thunder @ New Orleans Hornets

This is my first bet of the season where I don't go in the standard proposition of Side/Total Full Game bet. Nevertheless I really like the Hornets to roll tonight and spank the Thunder tonight however there is one factor that possibly could turn an easy winner into a backdoor cover for the Thunder: their poor bench. So I have to make a decision and honestly if the Hornets cover the -13 points spread, I have no doubt they will cover the HT spread as well. I predict that midway the fourth quarter they will lead by at least 15 points and then Chris Paul, David West and Tyson Chandler will sit out to rest and then we will have the third worst bench of the league in action (24.8 ppg) and I cannot depend of those guys to make a profit in here. In fact, the last time the Hornets had a big spread against Milwaukee (-9.5), they led by 15 points at HT (50-35) and late in the game their bench almost blew everything and the Hornets felt lucky to win that game in a late shot.

Well, the Hornets are playing their best basketball of the season. They won the last 5 games and Tyson Chandler is having a huge impact right now by dominating the boards and providing at least 3 beautiful alley hoops per game with CP3. I expect them to perform fine as long as they stayed in the court.

Meanwhile the Thunder won somehow their last 3 games against Memphis, Dallas and the Wizards. The most surprisingly factor is that Kevin Durant and Jeff Green were out in those games and still the Thunder were competitive and won these games. However to ask them to do the same thing on the road against one of the hottest teams in the league is too much. Note that although Jeff Green is questionable for this game and also their guard Thabo Sefolosha is questionable after playing well their last 2 games. The Thunder is playing hard without Durant and Green and the key for such competitiveness is their ability to grab offensive rebounds. In fact, they have more offensive boards then their opponents in the last 4 games and score a lot of second chance points was the key for them. For tonight this won't be easy for them as the Hornets since Chandler returned have always outrebounded their opponents and they are consequently the fifth best team in terms of offensive rebounds allowed/game.

This is the close out series game and the Hornets won all the 3 previous games. In the last one the Thunder were extremely competitive and the Hornets only won by 3 points. However a close look we can see that Kevin Durant scored 47 points (16-27 from the field) and the Thunder had 13 off. rebounds for just 6 of the Hornets and why? Because Tyson Chandler didn't play and the Hornets struggled down the post. Both things won't happen tonight and I expect the Hornets to grab a double digits lead at halftime.

Note: This is a halftime bet!

Regular Play on  New Orleans Hornets (-7) HALFTIME 

Yesterday we had a 2-2 night on the NBA, with a marginal loss, but I expect to come back to the winning days today.

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