BettingBasket Picks

Utah Jazz vs Los Angeles Lakers (By: samushao)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Well, we marked yesterday's fall on Celtics-Cavaliers Over and will have conclusions before the third game of the series in Cleveland.

In the series between the Lakers and the Jazz, it has been Bryant Gasol show so far. One sided gamest in LA did not exactly contribute to Utah self confidence. It's Now or - most probably - Never for Utah Jazz. At home, in front of the home crowd, Utah - the best home team in NBA with 37 wins and only 4 losses - will need to stop the Lakers, who are 6-0 in the playoffs this season. Otherwise, going down 0-3 will have them on the ropes, knowing, they will not beat LA four games in a row. Including two wins at the Staples Center in LA. Well, as good as the Jazz played at home - they lacked the stamina away and won only 17 times against 26 losses including two playoff losses in LA. So, tonight is the night when Utah will lay it all down. Win at all costs. The probability percentages from Accuscore show 61-39 in Utah's favor and the handicap spread for Utah win have risen from -3 to -4 points overnight. The Under/Over line stands at 215.

First of let us all understand, why Utah Jazz is such great home team. Salt Lake City is located at 4500 feet above the sea level and is physically challenging place to play if you are not accustomed to that altitude. In last season playoffs, Houston Rockets came to SLC with commanding 2-0 lead, but have dropped 2 games here and later, the whole series went to Utah with 4-3 win. Now, the Lakers went 4-0 against the Denver Nuggets including 2 wins at Denver, which is located at the higher altitude than SLC. In its dependency on running game, Denver could be compared to Utah Jazz, but that is where the certain similarities end. The key to LA wins was stopping Carlos Boozer, who was limited to 9 out of 24 made shots in two games so far. His life was made miserable by Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, each time he got to the paint. In the second game, he got into the foul trouble sooner than expected and was eliminated from influencing the game. Although EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City is considered loud place and according to Phil Jackson - LA coach - it certainly pressures the referees and the opposition, but the Lakers were one of the four teams winning here - ending Utah's 19 game home win streak in March.

Although, Utah is 6-3 Against The Spread in last 9 games at home when playing the Lakers, they are 1-7overall aginst La lakers in their last 8 games. The interesting fact to pay attention is that in each of the games described, the winner has also covered the Spread.

In Under/Over department, the story is as follows: the lakers can not afford to drop their guard in defense and, according to Utah coach, Jerry Sloan - will continue to play hard. In La, the Lakers have blocked 17 balls, and that was at home. The last time the teams scored more than 215 points in SLC was back in November 2007 (Utah win 120-96). Shootout is not likely to happen here tonight.

So, if we will go with the Jazz, since it is a best home team yet - will Kobe Bryant an NBA MVP selection influence his performance and get vout vof him even more, or quite a contrary - will Utah defense stand up to the challenge and will somehow limit the "Kobe". In the third game of the series against Denver, the Lakers, who were Underdogs with +2, have demolished the Nuggets 102-84 with Kobe Bryant's 22 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists. Luke Walton played well too with 15 points. The 192 points scored went UNDER 230 line for that game.

All that means for us that the Lakers do not like to be Underdogs. Period. Are they good enough to master their will and not to let TV pressure (no more 4 game series - they have sold the commercials already for at least 6 games) to prevent from them another sweep en route to the Conference Finals against either the Spurs or the Hornets?

We see it like that: if the Jazz will take this game, they will beat the Spread. If the Lakers will come out winners, it will be Under on the Game Totals ticket, and of course they will cover the spread.

There are games when we like to lay down the facts and let you guys make the decision based on the info we've given. This is one of those games and since Utah win seems trivial to all, we will go with Under on this game.

Pick : Under 215 points
Odds : 1.94
Stake: 7
Bookmaker : Canbet

Utah Jazz vs Los Angeles Lakers (By: bomfanart)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Utah was total loss in the first match in this series but they found themselves in the second match , they fought till the end but lost it.

Today they have a must win game and we know how they are good at their home , they hold the best home record for this year, they won one and lost one match against Lakers at their home .

They scored 120 in the winning match and 96 in the match they lost. Today i think they will play so fast and try to make some point difference in the first half so i have two picks for this match , first over 21.5.5 points to be scored and the other is utah -2.5 Half time handicap.

Good luck to Utah ,good luck to you all..

Pick : Utah -2.5 points halftime handicap
Odds : 1.95
Stake: 9
Bookmaker : Betsson

Utah Jazz vs Los Angeles Lakers (By: bomfanart)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Utah was total loss in the first match in this series but they found themselves in the second match , they fought till the end but lost it.

Today they have a must win game and we know how they are good at their home , they hold the best home record for this year, they won one and lost one match against Lakers at their home .

They scored 120 in the winning match and 96 in the match they lost. Today i think they will play so fast and try to make some point difference in the first half so i have two picks for this match , first over 21.5.5 points to be scored and the other is utah -2.5 Half time handicap.

Good luck to Utah ,good luck to you all..

Pick : over 215.5 points to be scored
Odds : 1.96
Stake: 10
Bookmaker : Betsson

Utah Jazz vs Los Angeles Lakers (By: Tazman4)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

It is the 3rd game of the series and the Jazz are hosting the Lakers. Utah is trying to forget their 2 losses at LA and try to get back to the series.

Sloan, Utah's coach, said that his players have to be more concentrated at offense and try to play like a team at the offensive end. They shouldn't go to one-on-one offensive plays, as they are not a team that plays offense like that. He, also, said that they must start the in a strong and passionate mood, as this was the fact that costed them at the games at LA. One thing that is encouraging him is that in both games, Utah managed to come back from two digit margins and cut LA's lead to 4 and 5 points at the 1st and 2nd game.

On the other hand, Phil Jackson, said that Utah's fans are very loud and make a lot of noise in order to help their team. He, also, stated that in order to win a game at Utah, you have to take a big lead early at the game, so as to make Utah's fans quiet. Kobe mentioned a movie named "Hoosiers", where somewhere in the movie the coach said to his players that everywhere they play the basket is 10 feet high.

Utah had the best home record (37-4) in the league, this year and they want to take advantage of that and of the boost that their fans are giving them. Utah's players seem determined to win the next 2 games at home and specially tonight's game. So far this season, Utah won 1 game at home against the Lakers, with 24 point margin, while Lakers have won 4 games in a row against Utah and one of them was on road.

I believe that it is time for the Lakers to lose at playoff and Utah's guys have the guts to do it.

Pick : Utah -4
Odds : 1.91
Stake: 6
Bookmaker : Bwin

Alicante vs Ciudad de la Laguna (By: Pokemon)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Match of the day 37 of the League LEB facing Alicante which has achieved 23 victories and 9 defeats, while Ciudad de La Laguna has achieved 15 victories and 17 defeats. As part of Alicante, reached this game in the third position and still has options to fight for second place in the classification which would allow it to a rival weaker in Play-off; arrive at party accumulating 3 consecutive victories and as local a statistic of 11 wins and 4 defeats. For his part, Ciudad de La Laguna arrives at the party without any pressure because it has achieved the goal of permanence and now struggle to achieve the Play-off that would be a real gift for this newly promoted team, Ciudad de La Laguna is one of the worst category of visitors with a balance of 13 defeats in 16 matches ('ve lost the last 9 games as a visitor). I think at Alicante as a clear favorite for several reasons: Firstly, the level of Ciudad de La Laguna as a visitor is very low, moreover, may not have some of the players or staff as Cabanas Heras will cause a rotation that have something Short as well have been shown in recent matches when major players have to play many minutes, also, that Alicante has an obligation to climb back into this category after following his fall below the ACB and seek a good seat for Play-off . Therefore, I believe that the victory of Alicante will be above the 10 points.

Pick : Alicante -7.5
Odds : 1.85
Stake: 7
Bookmaker : Bwin

San Antonio Spurs vs New Orleans Hornets (By: bomfanart)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Hornets leading this series 2-0 now and Spurs are in a situation that they can no afford a loss at their home now ,they have to win next 2 matches and they can do this only by one player, only by his big performances.

Hornets defensed Duncan so well in the first two matches, they doubled him as much as they can and risked the 3 point shooters but you can not do such thing at away side in my opinion.

20 points + 13 rebounds performance is nothing for Duncan and its like piece of cake for him in my opinion.

Good luck Duncan, good luck to you all..

Pick : Tim Duncan over 32 ( Points+Rebounds)
Odds : 1.85
Stake: 6
Bookmaker : Betsson

Boston Celtics vs Cleveland Cavaliers (By: Pokemon)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Cleveland and Boston face the second encounter of the preliminary round with 1-0 advantage to Boston after his victory 76-72 in the first encounter. So far, Boston is showing when local plays as a team very defensive, characterized by strong defense that has caused the attacks rival record low; Therefore, I believe that today Cleveland recorded fewer than 86 points. First, by Boston, the annotation highest it has received and locally in these Play-off was 85 points in the third encounter as local versus Atlanta in this regard, Boston receives an average of 76 points ( it is remarkable that in the last encounter Atlanta scored only 65 points), Cleveland scored only 72 points. In addition, these Cavaliers down their performance when they play as well as a visitor shows that average more than 100 points as local consumption and as a visitor only score 77 points in these Play-off. Today should be a match again very strong in defence, where Boston will again try to leave with an annotation to low Lebron James to be the key to Boston can win the game; In this sense, I think Cleveland recorded fewer than 85 points in the match today.

Pick : Cleveland under 85 points
Odds : 1.85
Stake: 7
Bookmaker : Bwin

Boston Celtics vs Cleveland Cavaliers (By: samushao)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

What has actually happened in the opener of the Best of Seven series between those two? What kind of the result is 76-72 when you have on court scoring monsters like LeBron James and Paul Pierce? How did Ray Allen managed not to score for the first time in 852 games? It was a combination of both: the great defense and the poor offense. Boston Celtics have turned the ball 23 times! Boston shot at 40% and Cleveland at 30.7%. Those numbers - as well as 2 shots made out of 18 from the field by James and combined 2 out of 18 by Pierce and Allen - are highly irregular and are not likely to happen again. Even with two top defenses like Celtics and Cavaliers have, it is still a very low score. Although, the games between the teams in the Boston Garden have ended up in lower game totals than in Cleveland - we had 80-70 in Celtics favor too - still, this time the score was low not because the teams did not run, but because of poor shooting and turnovers.

Ok, now we have established that the total points scored in tonight's game number 2 will be higher than 148. But the line on the game totals stands at 177 points. This is a 29 point difference. How did bookies got to those numbers? Well, they took a regular season game totals (average 191 points combined for a game) and mixed it with game totals between the teams and added up for a good taste an average from games played in Boston. Confused? Do not be. No way the game is gonna be as ugly and unattractive as the first one. American audience demands the show and wants it from their Superstars. That is why either 93-84 or 91-86 are the projected results based on averages and those represent the lines of 177 U/O and 8.5 point spread set by the bookies.

The great athletes who also can analise and improve their actions are called Superstars. We have quite a few here. James has declared that neither, him or Pierce and Allen can have such bad games again - and we believe him. I would not put all my eggs on it, but it seems definitely over 177 point game.

Pick : Over 177 points
Odds : 1.94
Stake: 6
Bookmaker : Canbet

Slavonski Brod vs Zadar (By: TripleH)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

I have to take this till the spread is still this small, tomorow morning will grow up to 20, 25. This is a big value Svjetlost brod is porest team in this leauge lately they dont lose under 20 points difference to first 4 teams in this playoff leauge. Cibona beaten them last week +50!!! Zagreb failed they beaten them +18, and Split got them +21. Svjetlost stands last in this leauge with 1-9 score. Zadar has still not secured first position Split is right behind them with ecqual 9-1 score, still there is a h2h match coming up in Split, so boath team need to keep wining. Zadar in their first matchup with Svjetlost won with 103-71, so a big 32 points diff. Zadar on road scores an avg of 91 PPG till Svjetlost score 85 PPG. I expect Zadar here to go over 100 points, Svjetlost will stay at 70 more and less!

Pick : Zadar -14.5
Odds : 1.95
Stake: 8
Bookmaker : Pinnacle

Orlando Magic vs Detroit Pistons (By: Rahul)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

The Detroit Pistons are not expected to win this game and all odds are against them tonight, but with a great defensive team like Detroit, I don't think the Magic stand a chance. From the beginning of the series, Magic have not looked comfortable at all especially at the Shooting Guard and Point Guard position, as Hamilton and Billups have really shown their Playoff experience.

The Pistons are surely reminding me of the San Antonio Spurs as they have in the previous seasons, take it easy through out the year, towards the end give their guys a lot rest, and when it comes to the playoffs take on the real game. The Magic played with really high intensity throughout the year, and the exhaustion is slightly showing on them especially on Lewis and Turkoglu, who have been the main stay for the Magic.

Converting on Free Throws has been an area of weakness for the Magic through this series shooting only 65% and majority coming on D12, but the Pistons on the other hand are shooting 88%, showing their intensity to get to the line and convert on those chances, and come playoff time, in series like this, it is essential to make as many as possible, especially when your on the road, and I am sure Detroit will continue to do this.

I am very damn sure that Detroit should take this game, but if not, the next game is almost a certainty that they will take it.

Pick : Pistons +5
Odds : 1.89
Stake: 7
Bookmaker : Bet365

Los Angeles Lakers vs Utah Jazz (By: Tazman4)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Lakers are by far a better team than Utah and they've shown that at the previous game. Despite the fact that they had about a week since their last game, they swept Denver, they've easily beat Utah. Their halftime lead was 13 points and in the second half, they did give some players a rest.

Utah couldn't handle with the Lakers, as their field goal percentage was not good (37.9% FG and 21.1% 3p). Tonight they want to do something more, but during the whole season they can't get strong performances when playing away from home.

Because the handicap is a little bit dangerous, I think that the halftime winner is a better option. Lakers like to start their games strongly and get big leads during the first 2 quarters. Their stats are saying that they score 27.8 and 27.0 points at 1st and 2nd quarter and Utah 26.1 and 25.8. Moreover, when playing at home they are scoring 27.9 and 26.8, while Utah when playing away is having 24.5 and 24.4. The Lakers, when they are favorites by 10 or less, are averaging 28.4 at 1st quarter and 27.1 at the 2nd one. Utah, when they are underdogs by 10 or less, are averaging 23.7 and 24.4. Finally, at their last 5 games Lakers are having 27.8 and 29.8 at the first 2 quarters and the Jazz 23.1 and 21.0 points.

At their last 5 games Lakers are having an 8.4 average lead at halftime and the Jazz are behind by an average of 2.4 points at halftime break.

Pick : Lakers -3.5 Halftime
Odds : 1.87
Stake: 7
Bookmaker : SportingBet

Vizura vs Hemofarm Stada (By: TripleH)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Hemofarm right now standing with 5-3 score on fourth position what will probably lead them to face Partizan in first round of playoffs. Hemofarm had many troubles with Partizan this season so Hemofarm will try to get the third position to avoid Belgrade team so early in playoffs. They have the quality to beat FMP and Red Star they have done it this season, so that will be a better choise. Today host Vizura stand alone with Borac on last position with just 1 win and 7 loses, Vizura offcourse has no chance to get to playoffs and for them is stayed to play for their pride. Hemofram is a 1 quality level above Vizura, they have proven it in first game wining 81-64, Hemofarm dominated 3 quters in the game to just relax a little in fourt quater and lost that one by 3 points. Hemofarm in my view here will win easely with double digital, this one is very important game for them.

Pick : Hemofarm -13
Odds : 1.95
Stake: 7
Bookmaker : Pinnacle

Swisslion Tak. vs Partizan (By: TripleH)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Partizan very powerfull team in serbian leauge visiting a city of takovo, and it will be a great for takovo club to host such a big team, sure their hall will be filled up. Partizan has 5-1 score right now in the leauge and still every game they play is very important couse top playoff places are still for grab, and they are favoritue to take the number 1 spot. Takovo stands right now in sixth position with 2-5 score with no more chances to pick one of the top spots. Those teams havent played game one in this leauge beacuse of a Partizan Adriatic leauge matchups. Frustrated by the last 71-39 loss to FMP, I see Partizan very motivated here to pick up a win over Lions and a big one. Teams that are the same qaulity as Lions exampe Vizura and Borac didnt go under 20 points diff. in games with big Partizan, I dont expect Lions to do that also. Lions didnt get a win 6 rounds in a row and in that 6 loses they picked up 4 double digital loses. Boath teams will be full squad today!

Pick : Partizan -13.5
Odds : 1.95
Stake: 7
Bookmaker : Pinnacle

Cibona vs Sibenka (By: TripleH)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Cibona (6-4) has left right now only on thing to try to do in this leauge before the playoffs and that is to try to get third position to awoit posibly Zadar in 1/2 finals. Cibona still has a home game against Zagreb that will be the clunch match for them, but till that game is played Cibona needs to stay close, as boath Zagreb and Cibona have easy games today.

Cibona faces Sibenik (3-7) who have lost thier motivation and only good games they now play is at home to please the crowd, on road ther is no any motivation couse playoff are far away. It will be hard for Sibenik today as Cibona allready beaten them +20 in thir last game when Sibenik was at home, Cibonas last time when they played at home won the game +50, scoreing 115 points!! I have no doubt that Cibona will win this, I see this one ending one more time around +20 for the home team!

Pick : Cibona -15.5
Odds : 1.95
Stake: 7
Bookmaker : Pinnacle

Zadar vs Dubrava (By: TripleH)

Jaimeg@bettingbasket.com

Zadar coach Aco Petrovic was very close to go awy from Zadar beacuse of very bad resoults lately, last game really made him angry, Zadar is the best team in croatian and was strugling to the last second with Zageb who they destroyed in first game, they won this last one but Aco was very mad.

Zadar (9-1) will host today poor Dubrava (1-9). Zadar players are very motivated here to please their coach with a big win, this is an important game for Zadar beacuse Split will have a thought job against Cedevita. Zadar is close to clinch to number 1 place before the playoffs and I will say in my view they will get it.

Dubrava has a very poor perfomance in this leauge, they are only good when at home. On road they lose with an avg. of (-17.6)!! Zadar has showned this season that poorer teams like Dubrava, Svjetlost dont go out of town with under 20 points diff.

Pick : Zadar -18.5
Odds : 1.95
Stake: 7
Bookmaker : Pinnacle