NBA Sports Betting – NBA Weekend Betting Picks
There are only two more full weekends of NBA regular-season play before the playoffs get rolling in the middle of April. Who will close the season on a strong note?
NBA Betting Overview
Online betting pundits have to pick their spots. In the middle of the NBA season, teams will succumb to travel and fatigue despite being at the top of the league. Mediocre teams will win games because of the schedule, as the entirety of the NBA jockeys for position in earnest expectation that an 82-game schedule can produce a playoff berth. Unlike January and February, however, early April is a different kind of beast. The travel schedule isn’t as likely to affect games; it’s the amount of incentive teams have to play at their best which will normally determine a given outcome. Experts in the sports betting world are aware that while good teams will suffer a shock loss here and there in the middle of winter, they’ll rise or fall due to different standards when the spring arrives. Sure, March Madness betting is often a matter of determining who is the hottest and most confident team at a given moment; that’s what a one-and-done tournament does for betting principles and strategies. The calculus is different, though, in the NBA. One needs to take a longer view and coldly take the measure of where various teams stand.
This upcoming weekend, there are four clear selections to make based on a sober overview of the current NBA situation.
On Saturday, the Chicago Bulls should clobber the Toronto Raptors at home in the Windy City. Chicago was embarrassed at home by the Philadelphia 76ers earlier this week, so the Bulls – as they try to lock up the number one seed in the NBA’s Eastern Conference – will be highly motivated to get things right against a tomato-can team from Canada. Toronto has pretty much cashed in its chips and made reservations for the golf course; the Raptors are just drifting toward the finish line like many NBA weaklings. Chicago should feast against Tornoto. Also on Saturday, the Oklahoma City Thunder to go Los Angeles to take on the Clippers. Now that Oklahoma City has the services of former Boston Celtic big man Kendrick Perkins, the Thunder are a much more complete team; they have the missing piece they needed a year ago when they pushed the Los Angeles Lakers to six games in an NBA playoff first-round series. The lowly Clippers will be no match for a team that wants to gain momentum heading into the postseason.
On Sunday, the top two Western Conference teams will be in action at home. The San Antonio Spurs host the Phoenix Suns while the Lakers welcome the Denver Nuggets to the Staples Center in the City of Angels. The Spurs have seen their once-large lead in the West get reduced to three and a half games. They’ll certainly need to tuck a few games into the win column, and a game against the soft and vulnerable Phoenix Suns – who will miss the playoffs for the second time in three seasons – is just the tonic the doctor ordered. As for the Lakers, the two-time defending champions are rounding into form. One shouldn’t expect them to step off the gas pedal at home against the retooled but not defensively imposing Nuggets. The West’s best should cruise this weekend as they ramp up for the upcoming postseason.
Picks: Bulls over Raptors (Saturday), Thunder over Clippers (Saturday), Lakers over Nuggets (Sunday), Spurs over Suns (Sunday)
