| In an earlier post I said something in passing: the NBA was "heating up". What that means is the NBA gets more attention as the NFL playoffs end; in reality, the NBA heated up on October 27th, opening night. Pro basketball is my favorite sport to watch but it is really hard to bet on. You have to use a lot of research on subpsychic undercurrents, connections & trends and/or all the mundane details of each team and player that particular day of the long season.
Take the New Jersey Nets for instance, their record stands at 3 wins to 37 losses, with about a .420 average against the spread. Their three rare wins all fall along a strange axis parallel to recent news about Bernie Kosar. On Dec. 4th they got their first win of the season against the Charlotte Bobcats. As the game was being played the NHL's Florida Panthers, a team of which Kosar is part-owner, were in the airspace over North Carolina as they traveled from Washington, DC to Atlanta.
The Nets' 2nd win came on Dec. 8th in Chicago on the same day that the handcrafted basket weaving and specialty foods conglomerate Longaberger was holding its regional sales meeting there. Kosar is a spokesman for Longaberger, as his Chapter 11 court filings indicated.
Victory number 3 came against the New York Knicks, December 30. Everyone remembers Kosar's playoff-record 480 passing yards (4+8=12) on 30 attempts against the New York Jets in the 1986 playoffs-- but more significantly the Nets' win came 3 months to the day after Kosar filed papers with the court detailing liquidation of his assets in order to satisfy creditors' claims. These assets included his ownership share in the aforementioned NHL team and "Bernie's Knickerbocker Steakhouse" in South Beach.
Another way of betting NBA games is by examining matchup comparisons like this (via the Nets Are Scorching blog, re: a 01/06/10 game against the Atlanta Hawks):
Yi vs. Josh Smith
This is the first time since we have seen "new Yi" play against a PF like Josh Smith. A smaller but athletic guy. I don't know how Yi is going to be able to defend him, but I can't wait to see Yi take advantage of this mismatch in the post.
Advantage: Josh Smith To me it's a hard thing to try to pull of winning on basketball. A lot of people try to look for a great team who might have a so-so night when they're favored by big points. I prefer the moneyline bet, though, to be honest; picking who wins straight out, with a varied level of payback for a win, for example a +160 moneyline pays $160 for a $100 bet, -160 moneyline pays $100 for a $160 bet. |
