Two nights ago when I last did these, I split it and went 3 of 6, bringing the weekly total to 16 of 25 correct (64% accurate).  Tonight brings quite a few intriguing lines and as usual, I’ve taken recent play and performances against the team in question into account, whereas Bodog usually goes by season averages.  It’s proven to be an effective strategy so far, so here’s a look at tonight’s selected player prop bets, seven ‘overs’ and two ‘unders.’

Continue reading “NBA Selected Player Prop Bets for January 15th, 2011”

Sacramento Kings AT New Orleans Hornets
December 15th, 2010 at 8:00 PM EST
Opening Line:  New Orleans -10.5
Current Line:  New Orleans -10.5
Opening Total: 186
Current Total: 186
Opening Moneyline:  New Orleans -700 / Sacramento +550
Current Moneyline:  New Orleans -624 / Sacramento +501

Continue reading “NBA Picks ATS: Sacramento Kings at New Orleans Hornets”

Tyreke Evans is going to get better, the question is, "how much better next year?"
The Sacramento Kings have a wealth of young talent, and recently signaled a change in philosophy by dealing Kevin Martin for Carl Landry. This move solidified their committment to Tyreke Evans as the cornerstone of their franchise. They were fortunate enough to land DeMarcus Cousins this offseason in the draft, who promises to be a significant part of the franchise for years to come. While Sacramento may not make the playoffs this year, they promise to be an improved team and should be a fun one to watch, as Evans and Cousins grow together to form part of the Kings’ new nucleus.  Here are some player prop bets from Bodog Sportsbook.

Continue reading “Sacramento Kings Player Prop Bets”

Andrew Bogut perplexes me. He has the look at times of what he is – a number one overall pick. Other times, though, he can look like the most common, uninspiring player on the planet. The reason I thought of this today was I caught part of Milwaukee’s game against the Celtics. Boston won fairly easily to drop Milwaukee for the eighth time in their last nine game.Bogut, though, was prett y special. He had 25 points and 14 boards, and he shot the lights out. In short, he played pretty much entirely up to his potential. He did that the othernight , too – on November 30the against the Bulls he had 22 and 15. The problem, though, is that sandwiched between those two all-star caliber performances were three absolutely stinky duds. He had a total of just 23 points and 20 rebounds combined in those three games, and he shot .323 from the field. I could understand this kind of maddening inconsistency if the guy was a rookie or even a sophomore, but given that he’s in his fifth year it’s frustrating, and it’s one of several reasons why the Bucks are a hard team to handicap these days.

Continue reading “Two NBA Notes, and One From College Football”

The Hornets have become the first team to fire a coach this year by booting Byron Scott just a year and a half after he was named NBA Coach of the Year. The team had limped out to a 3-6 start, and two of those win hardly count because they were against the Clippers and Kings. I’d sum up the way the franchise handled this with two words – inevitable and stupid. It was inevitable because Scott had to go because of the start and because of the way the season last year went – a disappointing regular season and humiliating playoffs. Chris Paul was frustrated and the team has no more important task than keeping Paul happy. They are already over the luxury tax threshold so they can’t overhaul the roster in a meaningful way, so Scott was the only real option. The move was stupid, though, because of their choice of a replacement. The new head coach is general manager Jeff Bower. He has been with the team since 1995 and he built the current team so he knows them well, but he has never been a head coach and a couple of assistant stints atMarist and Penn State a hundred years ago are his only real bits of (barely) relevant experience. They have also hired Tim Floyd as Bower’s top assistant. Not only if Floyd coming off a disgraceful exit from USC, but his last coaching experience in the NBA was with the Hornets – and they fired him in 2004 after one season because he didn’t do a good job. I have no problem with getting rid of Scott, but only if they replace with a coach with a good chance of being better than Scott was. I just don’t really see that here.

Continue reading “NBA Thoughts Galore”

The NBA Draft is now a few days in the past, so we have had a chance to let things percolate in our minds for a few days. Here are ten thoughts I’ve had about the events at this point:

1. Ricky Rubio is a jackass. I am so incredibly tired of 18 year old guys who think they rule the world. Rubio has never been to Minneapolis, so how does he know that he doesn’t want to play there. Idiot. I hope he festers in Spain forever. What a terrible way for a young guy to set a tone. The saddest thing is that in the end he’ll get exactly what he wants.

Continue reading “Post-Draft Pondering”

I want to look at tonight’s NBA Draft a bit, but first a couple of quick stories to touch on:

  • I love the Shaq trade for Cleveland. He’s obviously not the man he was, but he’ll fit well with LeBron, they gave nothing of significance up for him, and they aren’t tied to him long term. The guy knows how to win, and he’s hard to contend with inside. I could see him liking the idea of going out on top, and this is as good a spot as any outside of the Lakers or the Spurs (two places he really isn’t going) to do so.
  • I was very interested to see Lleyton Hewitt pull a big upset of the number five seed off today, and look pretty darned good doing it. He’s in a soft draw, and could easily get to the quarterfinals. He’s traditionally been good at Wimbledon, and he has rediscovered some lost form recently. He’s not going to win it, but I see him winning a few more games.

Continue reading “The NBA Draft, and Other Stuff”

  • I don’t know what is wrong with Barry Zito, but it is something big. The guy has a world of talent, but he just isn’t right. In fact, he’s a mess. He blew up again today at home against the Diamondbacks – three earned runs and one more unearned in six innings. Of most concern he walked five and only struck out two. You can blame some of his woes on the fact he plays for a lousy team, but by far the bigger issue is that he just isn’t very good. He’s a space cadet, so this can’t be good on his mind, and I can’t be confident in his ability to overcome the problem. Maybe it will turn around, but it is much harder to find a precedent for that than it is to find one for him being done for as an elite pitcher.
  • Memphis has lost a lot with the departure of Derrick Rose and probably Chris Douglas-Roberts and the graduation of Joey Dorsey. Things just got a whole lot easier for them today, though, with the signing of another one-and-done superstar. Tyreke Evans is a shooting guard out of Philadelphia who was the MVP of the McDonald’s All-American game this year. He is pretty much a perfect fit for Calipari’s system, and he will make it unpleasant to play in Conference USA for another year.
  • Alfonso Soriano is on the DL after straining his calf making a catch. That’s not good news for the Cubs – at least theoretically. Soriano has been brutal so far this year, but he is much better than he has been playing and should be due for an upward adjustment.
  • It is curious that Tiger hasn’t really used his knee injury as an excuse for his flat showing at the Masters. It was obviously serious if he went ahead and had the surgery so soon afterward, but I wonder how much of an impact it really had? He didn’t look like he had a bad knee, but he didn’t look right, either. We’ll have to wait for a month or more to get our first clue, I guess.
  • I was more than a little surprised that Keno Davis bolted Drake so soon to take over at Providence. That is a step forward, but he’s not stepping into a program in great shape, and he had a family link at Drake and a good deal of success in a short time. Maybe he just knew when to get out when he was ahead. It will be very interesting to watch to see whether he just caught lightning in a bottle, or if he is the real deal. If it is the latter then Providence will be back in the coaching market in just a couple of years.

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