NBA Handicapping Articles

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/23/2018

For the past 20 years, the San Antonio Spurs have been the NBA's model organization. They have won five titles in that span, made the playoffs every year and won at least 50 games each of the past 18 years - they probably would have all 20 if not for the 1998-99 lockout. The 50-win streak could end this year and the Spurs might be done as we know them because of this unusual Kawhi Leonard situation. Leonard had been limited to nine games this season and not played since Jan. 13 with something called right quad tendinopathy injury.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/21/2018

It's a misnomer to say the NBA's second half of the season begins Thursday night because the next game for some teams will be their 60th in the 82-game slate. That said, the various sportsbooks have released updated futures odds coming out of the All-Star break. BetOnline projects the Houston Rockets to win the most games in the NBA with 63 - Houston was given a total of 54.5 entering the season. The Warriors were at 67.5 but have been downgraded to 62.5. Two big movers have been the Memphis Grizzlies and Indiana Pacers for different reasons. The Grizzlies have barely had star guard Mike Conley this season (he's done), and they are now given a win total of just 27.5 compared to 38.5 back in October.

Updated NBA Futures Odds: Three-Team Race for the Title
by David Anicetti - 2/19/2018

The NBA trade deadline has come and gone, All-Star Weekend has passed and contract buyouts are underway. That means the futures board for the NBA title has been shuffled, but after the dust settled the same two teams are on top of their respective conferences and a new contender has appeared on the scene

NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest Betting Odds and Expert Predictions
by Chris Vasile - 2/15/2018

The NBA season has been nothing short of a soap opera over the last month or so. There are just too many storylines to touch on without making this piece over 3,000 words, so let's just stick to the main talking points. The first: the Cavs just traded their entire roster and got better. The second: the Warriors are complaining they are tired and are desperately trying to get into the break on a winning note. The third: nobody is talking about the upcoming All-Star weekend.

2018 NBA All-Star Three-Point Contest Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Chris Vasile - 2/15/2018

With celebrities and NBA All-Stars set to converge on Tinseltown this coming weekend, I'm going to try my hardest not to get caught up in all the glitz and glamour of all-star weekend. Instead, I'm going to try and turn a profit, much like I've done throughout the first half of the NBA season. The first event I have my eye on is this year's Three-Point Contest.

NBA Betting Trends: Totals Report for Hot Over and Under Teams
by Aaron Smith - 2/14/2018

The trade deadline has passed, and there were quite a few big moves. The Cavs trading away half their roster seemed necessary, and through two games the results look great. Time will tell on those deadline deals. The NBA All-Star Break is this coming weekend. I'd be cautious making too many wagers in the last games before the break and once again in the first games out of the break.

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/14/2018

Look, I have no idea who will win Sunday night's All-Star Game from Los Angeles between Team LeBron and Team Stephen, although I do like the new roster setup by captains LeBron James and Stephen Curry drafting players. I guess I'd lean Team Stephen simply because LeBron's team has lost a handful of guys to injuries, led by DeMarcus Cousins and Kristaps Porzingis. Bovada also is offering props on some of the other events this weekend from Staples Center.

NBA Betting Advice: Beware Tanking Teams after All-Star Break
by Trevor Whenham - 2/14/2018

We're beyond the NBA trade deadline. There is still plenty of NBA action left to be played, but for several teams we are at a key time in the schedule - the time when bottom dwellers really commit to tanking. And tanking is a particularly attractive thing to do this year because this is a deep and talented draft with a small handful of players who have the potential to really move a team forward.

Handicapping the NBA Buyout Market
by Trevor Whenham - 2/14/2018

It's buyout time in the NBA - that magical time when washed up veterans suddenly become the missing pieces for teams making a title push. It's a time of hype and speculation - and something to make the post-trade deadline dog days of the NBA interesting. Sometimes buyouts can have a big impact - Joe Johnson joining the Heat in 2016 is a recent example. But most often they don't amount to too much - if the guys were valuable then they wouldn't be available.

Free NBA Picks: Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/13/2018

A total of 24 of the NBA's 30 teams are in action on Wednesday night before just four on Thursday and then the All-Star break. Being honest, Wednesday will be one of the toughest nights of the year to handicap games 24 hours or so ahead of time because I expect that many teams will rest any top players who have even the most minor of injuries or fatigue. Might as well give those guys a full week off rather than throw them out there when their mind might already be on vacation as it is. When players aren't focused, that's when they are more likely to get injured. However, after the break we should be treated to our best basketball of the season for the playoff push (those 10 or so that aren't tanking that is).

Free NBA Picks: Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/12/2018

The marquee matchup of the night in the NBA is Cleveland at Oklahoma City (well, if two banged-up Thunder stars are in the lineup). What makes it even more interesting in my opinion is that it's the last time that LeBron James and Paul George will share the same court this season - sorry, there's not going to be a Cavs-Thunder NBA Finals. Of course, James was trying to get his former GM to land George in a trade this past summer, but that didn't work out reportedly because James wouldn't commit to stay in Cleveland past this season. Last week's trade deadline was notable for the Los Angeles Lakers because they cleared enough salary to have enough cap room to offer James and George max contracts.

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/9/2018

Well, that was quite an NBA trade deadline day, wasn't it? The Golden State Warriors did nothing because they don't need to mess with what they have. The Boston Celtics were quiet. The Clippers kept DeAndre Jordan. What was truly shocking was not that the Cleveland Cavaliers were active but that they essentially overhauled their entire team outside of LeBron James, the injured Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson (who surely was offered around). Gone are Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, Channing Frye, Iman Shumpert and the team's protected 2018 first-round pick - but not that Nets pick. In are the Lakers' Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. along with Sacramento's George Hill and Utah's Rodney Hood.

Expert NBA Handicapping: Milwaukee Bucks a Surprising Contender in East
by Trevor Whenham - 2/9/2018

If the NBA Playoffs were to start today then the Milwaukee Bucks would be hosting a playoff series. The Bucks - long the easiest team to forget about in the league. And, more than that, in a conference that is more wide open than it has been in a very long time you can't laugh at the idea of the team making the Eastern Conference Final. This isn't a great team - certainly far from perfect - but it has a centerpiece any team in the league would kill for, some nice complementary pieces, and a style of play that can be very effective. So, let's take some time to look at this team a little from a betting perspective, shall we?:

Free NBA Picks: Friday, Feb. 9, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/8/2018

You might take a quick glance at Friday's NBA slate and see Clippers-Pistons and Timberwolves-Bulls and think those are two pretty mediocre-to-bad matchups. And maybe neither game will be close, but both are homecoming games for two big-time NBA stars. In Clippers-Pistons, it's Blake Griffin's first game against his former mates since that shocking trade to Detroit late last month. If you say you saw that coming, you are flat-out lying. Not even Griffin did as he expected to be a Clipper for life after signing that huge extension this past summer - why his agent didn't negotiate a no-trade clause, I don't know.

NBA Handicapping: Analyzing the Cavaliers after the Trade Deadline
by Trevor Whenham - 2/8/2018

I've known for a while now that I had to write about the Cavaliers at some point this week. I figured, though, that I had better wait until after the trade deadline on Thursday afternoon in case they make a deal of some sort. Little did I know that they would trade six players and totally overhaul their roster. Hilariously, the six traded players are the most by any team in the last 30 years, tying only the 2008 Cavs - the last time the team was trying to appease LeBron and keep him from bolting. So, now we have a team that looks fundamentally different than the one they had a day before the deadline - though not as different as they likely would have liked because Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson are still in town. But is different better?

Handicapping the LA Clippers and Detroit Pistons after Blake Griffin Trade
by Trevor Whenham - 2/8/2018

The NBA trade deadline was pretty busy, and thanks to the Cavaliers it was pretty interesting. The most interesting trade of the season, though, happened well before the deadline. When the Clippers and the Pistons pulled the trigger on the deal - that came seemingly out of nowhere - with Blake Griffin as the centerpiece, they really made waves. It seemed to tell us a lot about where both teams were - even if one of them doesn't seem to know it. Now that the dust has settled and more than a week has passed, it's a good time to look at where the teams are at and what this deal means now and going forward:

Free NBA Picks: Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/7/2018

Thursday is one of my favorite sports days of the year: the NBA's trade deadline, which is at 3 p.m. ET. The league moved up the deadline this year ahead of the All-Star Game partly because of the DeMarcus Cousins embarrassment last season when it became known that he had been traded during that game to New Orleans, which just so happened to be hosting the All-Star Game. One benefit of the earlier deadline is that it gives traded players a bit more time to acclimate themselves to their new teams. I think it's a sure thing that Memphis' Tyreke Evans is dealt by 3 p.m. ET Thursday if not by the time you read this.

Free NBA Picks: Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/6/2018

The NBA's trade deadline is Thursday, and one semi-big name seemingly a near sure thing to be dealt is Utah's Joe Johnson. "Big Shot Joe" has officially requested a trade and the team is trying to oblige him. At age 36, Johnson isn't going to be the difference in some contender winning a title or not, but as that name implies he has been very big in the clutch in his career and would be a great bench piece.

Free NBA Picks: Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/5/2018

Granted, we haven't even hit the All-Star break yet and there are a little more than two months remaining in the regular season, but it's never too early to start thinking about playoff tiebreakers. That brings me to one of the top games of Tuesday night with Boston visiting Toronto. With the mess the Cleveland Cavaliers are in, it's pretty evident that either the Celtics or Raptors will get the East's top seed.

Free NBA Picks: Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, Opening Line Report and Handicapping
by Alan Matthews - 2/2/2018

The Cleveland Cavaliers were near locks to make some sort of trade by the Feb. 8 deadline, but the broken hand suffered by All-Star forward Kevin Love on Tuesday now essentially assures that. Love is expected to miss approximately eight weeks, which should see him return right near the end of the regular season. He gets a lot of grief and isn't exactly the world's best defender, but he is what you want in a stretch-four as Love is shooting better than 40 percent from 3-point range while averaging 17.9 points and 9.4 rebounds.