Sports betting

NBA Picks

by Kevin Taylor | November 3 2009

Well, the 2009/10 NBA regular season has tipped off and Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers have begun defense of their championship.

According to futures odds at the online sportsbook SPORTSBETTING.COM, the Lakers are +210 to repeat as champs, -125 to win the Western Conference and a prohibitive -2500 to win the Pacific Division.

Three games into the season, the Lakers are 2-1 straight up but have yet to cover a game against the spread, currently at 0-3 ATS. Will they grab their first cover tonight?

NBA Picks:
The Lakers begin a two games in two nights road swing tonight when they head to Oklahoma City to play the Thunder, listed as 7.5-point road faves with an Over/Under of 193.5.

Dating back to last season, the Lakers are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 road games and are also very good straight up, going 8-2 in their last 10 road games against the Seattle/Oklahoma City franchise.

In their last 10 games that are the first of back to backs, the Lakers are once again solid straight up going 10-1.

In the last 20 games when favored by 8-points or less, the Lakers have 5 Overs and 15 Unders and have gone Under in the last seven-straight with that spread range.

In Oklahoma City's last 14 home games, they have 2 Over and 12 Unders.

Pick: I'm looking at going with the trends in this one and playing on the "Under".

- If the Lakers do happen to make it back the NBA finals this season, wouldn't it be good if they played the Cleveland Cavaliers? The team added Shaquille O'Neal in the offseason in order to bolster its lineup and a Shaq-Kobe final would be magic.

The Cavs are -800 to take the Central, +150 to win the Eastern Conference and +300 to capture a title.

Back in the present, the Cavs are gearing up to host the Washington Wizards tonight. The NBA Lines on this one have the Cavaliers as -11.5 favorites and a total of 197.5

Four games into the season, Shaq and Cleveland are off to a slow start, going 2-2 SU and are 1-3 ATS at the same time.

In its last 11 games overall, Cleveland has been a miserable 2-9 ATS and in its last 10 home games they have 7 Overs.

In the Cavs' last eight home games against Washington in the month of November, they have gone 6-2 ATS.

Pick: I'm playing the "Over" 197.5 in this one.

Shaq is listed at +2200 to take this year's MVP award while Kobe is +300.

Speaking of Shaq, both of his previous two teams meet tonight as the Phoenix Suns play a road game against the Miami Heat with the home team favored by 3.5-points and the Total at 216.

The Suns have not shone in their last eight games in Miami, going 1-7 ATS.

Both Phoenix and Miami will be playing the first game in back to back nights but the Heat are the only ones who seem to thrive in that situation, going 6-2 ATS in their last eight such games.

In the Heat's last 13 home games they are 10-3 SU and ATS.

Enjoy all the basketball betting action.

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