Sports betting

NBA Playoff Betting, Basketball Betting, Basketball Gambling

by SPORTSBETTING.COM staff | April 23 2009

March Madness is over (congrats North Carolina) but basketball betting opportunities are really starting to heat up in the NBA as the regular season comes to a close and the NBA playoffs are getting set.

Looking back on 2008, the NBA got a dream matchup when the future odds favorites and fan favorites, Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, met in the Championship series.

It's safe to say the NBA and sports bettors would love to see a rematch. The betting has been steady all season on both teams to be in the Finals again… LA has been a particular favorite of the sports betting community.

Not to be outdone, the Cleveland Cavaliers are the favorite to win it all this year when looking at the NBA odds at SPORTSBETTING.COM.

Heading into the final week of the season, both the Cavaliers and the Lakers were at the top for most wins.

As talented as Michael Jordan was early in his career, he didn't truly get the respect he deserved until he led the Chicago Bulls to an NBA title and a parallel can be drawn to LeBron James and the Cavs.

The future is now, or maybe next year, for Cleveland as they stand to lose King James as a free agent at the end of 2010 (there are prop bets available for sports bettors to wager on where they think Lebron will end up in 2010, with the sports betting public thinking it will likely be New York).

As it stands, the Cavaliers are listed not only as the odds-on favorite to take the Eastern Conference championship at -200 but to take the NBA championship as well at +175.

Teams that win a lot straight up aren't necessarily teams that win against the spread but luckily for Cleveland bettors, the Cavs are a team that does a little from column A and column B.

Cleveland is 63-15 SU but more importantly to bettors is the fact that they are 45-33 ATS, delivering a very profitable 25-14 ATS at home and a slightly profitable 20-19 ATS mark on the road.

Will Cleveland continue to be profitable in the NBA playoffs?

Cleveland has feasted on teams from the Atlantic division going 16-4 ATS in its last 20 but hasn't been as strong against its own (Central) division, going 9-11 ATS, and even less so against the Southeast at 7-13 ATS.

As a sports town, Boston has been subjected to a lot of hardship, from the Curse of the Bambino to an NBA championship drought that ended last year when the Celtics beat the Lakers.

Can the Celtics make it back to back titles for Beantown? Boston's NBA Championship odds are listed at +450.

One of the reasons Boston won it all last season was the play of Kevin Garnett and although Garnett has contributed this year, he has been hampered by a knee injury and has not seen action since late-March; speculation is that he could return for Boston's second-last game.

Garnett's health will be a determining factor in whether Boston pays out in futures betting.

Boston is only 40-38 ATS and is struggling at home with an ATS mark of 19-20 and a 21-18 ATS road record.

Against fellow Atlantic division teams, Boston is 12-7-1 ATS in the last 20 games; it is also 8-12 against the Central and 10-10 ATS vs. the Southeast.

Not far behind Boston in the Eastern standings is the Orlando Magic (+1000 to win the NBA championship).

Pardon the pun but Orlando has been magic on the betting front going 48-29-1 ATS this season.

Of that 48-29-1 ATS record, 10 wins and 10 losses came against the Atlantic division, 11 wins, eight losses and one push came against the Central and the remaining 12 wins and eight losses comes against fellow teams from the Southeast.

On the Western front, the L.A. Lakers have future odds on them to take the NBA title at +180.

The Lakers have a good regular season record (63-16) but a mediocre record against the spread (40-38-1).

When it comes to its record against teams from within its own conference the Lake Show has proven to be, if nothing else, slightly profitable.

The Lakers are 10-9-1 ATS in the last 20 games against Northwest division opponents, 13-7 ATS vs. the Southwest division and 11-9 ATS against its own division. However, more recently, the Lakers are 4-9 ATS against the Pacific division.

Get ready for the NBA Playoffs and all the betting opportunities that come with that. You can wager on NBA series prices, NBA Playoff MVP, NBA future odds on the Conference Champions, NBA Championship future odds, Lebron James prop bets, Kobe Bryant prop bets, Dwayne Wage prop bets and much more. Check out SPORTSBETTING.COM for all the sports betting offerings for the NBA Playoffs and for the NBA playoff lines.