We outline the best and worst bets in the NBA playoffs
By Carlisle Richards Bodog
Nation Contributing Writer
As exciting as the 2008 playoffs have been, much of what we expected
has transpired thus far.
The Atlanta Hawks have no business calling themselves a playoff team.
The Houston Rockets are as mediocre as we said they were during their
22-game winning streak. The Denver Nuggets need to do some high school
defensive drills, and the San Antonio Spurs still have the Phoenix Suns'
number.
The only first-round series that should come as a shock is the New Orleans
Hornets' dominance of the Dallas Mavericks. If the MVP award included
the playoffs, Chris Paul would have the award locked up.
To keep you betting on the NBA's hot wagers, here are our power rankings
for Week 2 of the NBA playoffs:
You usually only see this kind of huge gap in talent in NCAA basketball.
The Hawks are just incapable of giving the Celtics a competitive game
and seem to be fighting just to keep themselves from losing by 20. Boston
is a great under wager as well. Their league-leading defense is holding
the Hawks to 79 points per game.
I had the Jazz circled as a solid bet at home in this series, so it
comes as a bit of a surprise that they've been so impressive against
the Rockets on the road. Houston looks like a beaten team already, and
it's only going to get worse once they have to visit EnergySolutions
Arena. Expect the spreads to be close to double digits, and expect the
Jazz to still cover.
Everyone expected the Hornets to fold under the pressures of the playoffs,
but it's their first-round opponent, the Dallas Mavericks, that look
lost. Paul is just destroying Jason Kidd, Jason Terry or any other Mavs
guard that has attempted to stay in front of him, averaging 33.5 points
and 13.5 assists. Because of that, the Hornets have crushed the line
in both games ATS and versus the total.
Oddsmakers tossed the Lakers 8.5 points in both games versus an elite
offensive basketball team in Denver, and L.A. crushed them by 14-plus
in both. The Lakers are now 5-0 against the spread versus the Nuggets
this season and seem to have too much chemistry to slow down when they
face Denver at home.
The Washington Wizards have done their best to get LeBron James off
his game so far, but all it's done is made him angry. A determined King
James is like trying to stop a semi at full speed, so unless they find
a way to slow him down, a series sweep straight up and ATS is likely.
Phoenix Suns fans may not want to hear this, but this series feels like
it's already over. The Suns have proven that they just don't know how
to beat the Spurs, and it seems like they're just preventing the inevitable.
The Suns will probably be favorites in their next two games at home,
but I expect the Spurs to cover in both.
The Magic are up 2-0 in their best-of-seven series against the Toronto
Raptors and they still haven't played their best basketball. The problem
is their porous defense (they've given up 100 points in both games),
and while it could hurt them ATS, it at least helped them go over the
total in both games.
Dreaming of a 76ers upset in the first was fun, wasn't it? As usual,
the Detroit Pistons decided to play ball and routed the 76ers in Game
2. Philly deserves their props. They may even win and cover another game,
but on paper, they just don't have the talent to be trusted from here
on out.
I see a positive
change in the Suns with Shaquille O'Neal on the team. Unfortunately,
they're still missing one thing needed to finally beat
the Spurs – a playmaker in the clutch. Steve Nash is not the guy.
He's the guy who should be passing to "the guy." O'Neal can't
be in the game late because of his foul shooting and Amare Stoudemire
is still a raw player one-on-one. The Spurs have plenty of clutch players
in Manu Ginobili, Robert Horry and even Tim Duncan. The Suns will continue
to struggle against the Spurs until they find one of their own.
I'm not going to
go as far as ESPN analyst Steven A. Smith and call Chris Bosh "Manute Bol with dreads," but I do agree that he
and his Raptors are "soft." They don’t get the tough
baskets like Magic center Dwight Howard can, and they'll continue to
live or die (most likely die) on their jump shots throughout the rest
of the series.
What a frustrating squad this is. Seems like it takes an angry Rasheed
Wallace for the Pistons to play four quarters of basketball, which makes
them one of the tougher teams to bet on ATS. Unless they pick it up and
start playing consistent ball, the only way this team will be profitable
for the rest of the playoffs is versus the total.
TNT analyst Charles
Barkley is right, the Wizards are the "dumbest" team
in NBA history and deserve to be in their current do-or-die position.
They called out James, called out the entire Cavs team and lost ATS in
Games 1 and 2 because of it. I don't see much hope for this team even
when they play at home.
Defense, defense, defense. Nuggets head coach George Karl has to be
preaching this to his players at this point, or maybe he's just realized
that teaching defense to this squad would be like trying to teach blind
kids to read. The Nuggets will need to score 130 points to cover in this
series.
This is just sad. The Mavericks were the best in the West just a year
ago, and now they're struggling to beat a team that had lottery dreams
just two years ago. Dirk Nowitzki no longer looks like the superstar
that carried the Mavs in years past and Kidd does not look like the point
guard that'll bring Dallas back to the finals.
Remember when we
used to argue about who was the better player in the NBA – Kobe
Bryant or Tracy McGrady? The subject seems ludicrous now since McGrady
has proven time and time again that he doesn't have
the skills (or back) to carry any team past the first round, much less
to a championship. He'll need to drop 50 per game in Utah for the Rockets
to survive.
What
do you say about a team that doesn't even deserve to be here? At this
point, the Hawks are just waiting to be put out of their misery.
It won't be long.
