One of the big challenges with NBA handicapping is trying to find a winner in a game with a small point spread when both NBA teams are elite and well matched. With NBA basketball odds, It’s easy to get a sense of how a game will turn out when there is a (more…)

Early in the NBA season one of the best ways for smart handicappers to cash in is to have a sense of which teams are underrated by the general public. There will always be a few teams that don’t get nearly the respect they deserve. The odds from bookmakers for those (more…)

It has become an all-too familiar story in the NBA – superstar players who have grown unhappy with their situation and demand a trade in the middle of the season. Carmelo Anthony, Deron Williams, Dwight Howard – the list of all-stars that have held their teams ransom is long and impressive. (more…)

The hardest position to play well in the NBA is point guard. They have to command the play, set the tone, avoid mistakes, and make their team work. It used to be that point guard was a position that young players had been able to ease into. Recently, though, it has (more…)

It’s not particularly common in the NBA, but teams will occasionally be subjected to the grueling challenge of playing three games on three consecutive nights. It’s an incredibly tough challenge for NBA players – especially because at least one of the games – and often more – is typically played on (more…)

Every year in the NBA there is at least one team that looks good during the regular season that just doesn’t perform once the postseason starts. Once they are eliminated you can often look back and see the signs that pointed to what happened. If a sports bettor could spot those (more…)

Every time a trade deadline passes in a sport that trades a lot of players around, such as the NBA, I’m obviously interested to see what players are traded and what impact that will have on their new teams. As an expert sports handicapper, though, I’m almost as interested in the (more…)

NBA player prop betting is getting more and more popular. There are several different types of player props that are available to bet depending on the book you use. While expert NBA bettors know that each type of bet obviously needs to be looked at slightly differently there is, at the (more…)

Winning sports bettors know that wagering on the NBA changes in subtle but significant ways after the all-star break each season. You still have to do the same things you have done all year – consider the odds, pick the winners and find the value – but what goes into determining (more…)

The NBA betting public is better at one thing than all others – overreacting to situations. They will regularly assume the worst about situations, and have an incredible ability to make mountains out of molehills. The NBA preseason isn’t typically taken as seriously by teams as the regular season, so there (more…)

NBA bettors spend a lot of time looking at the long term impact of trades in the league. It’s important, though, to consider what the short term impact of trades are on professional teams. I’m talking about the first game or two played on the hardwood right after a deal is (more…)

Every year in the NBA there are a few things that we can be sure to see. One of those is that there will be several teams that play worse – often significantly worse – after the NBA All-Star break than they did before the break. If sports bettors can spot (more…)

Every year in the NBA there are a couple of teams that get off to a surprising start. On paper they don’t look like much, but for the first few weeks of the basketball season they seem to have forgotten how to lose. That can create a real headache for NBA (more…)

If you have bet the NBA for a while, or even just followed it as a fan, then this has certainly happened to you – you have had very high hopes and expectations for a team heading into the season but they come out of the gate totally flat. Their best (more…)

When it comes to superstars in the NBA there is no such thing as loyalty. If LeBron James can leave Cleveland then it’s unreasonable to assume that any star will stick with one team for their entire career. It does happen, but movement – either through free agency or trades – (more…)

There are few jobs in the world less secure than head coach of an NBA team. Teams change coaches seemingly on a whim, so it is very common to see several professional basketball teams make a coaching change during each season. Often times a team will experience a bump in play (more…)

Being a coach in the NBA is not a great job to have if you value job security. There is a whole lot of turnover every year, and coaches often don’t last in a job for very long if they don’t get immediate results. When a new basketball coach starts the (more…)

The media and fans love to talk about trades in the NBA. It’s a constant source of entertainment and endless speculation. The problem is, though, that because of the salary cap restrictions trades aren’t nearly as common as people think they are. That means that every year at the NBA trade (more…)

Every year in the NBA we see elite teams go into a slump later on in the season. These are teams that have been playing very well, are certainly going to the playoffs, and are a threat to win it all once they get there. For some reason, though, they hit (more…)

When you think of Christmas day what do you think of? For me it’s trees, presents, family, turkey, and professional basketball. The NBA owns Christmas day, They are often the only game in town, and some of the  best and most eagerly anticipated matchups of the year are scheduled for the (more…)

Home court advantage is particularly significant in the NBA. From year to year home teams win about 60 percent of games that are played, so there is undeniably a boost to be had from playing on the home hardwood. The advantage is almost universal as well – there was only one (more…)

Each year in the NBA it seems like we are seeing more and more players signed as free agents during the regular season. There are a number of ways a professional basketball player can become a free agent in the middle of a season – if they have been playing in (more…)

When the NBA season is about to get underway the attention of bettors inevitably is drawn towards the NBA Championship futures odds. For astute bettors these can be a great way to find some nice profit that can fatten the bankroll substantially. They are also a really easy way to make (more…)

Big favorites in the NBA are far from uncommon. There is a massive gap between the best teams in the league and those in the cellar, so double digit point spreads in the NBA are far from uncommon. Needless to say, though, the favorites don’t always cover the spread, and they (more…)

NBA bettors are regularly faced with massive point spreads in games when a heavy favorites plays a seemingly outmatched team. A point spread that big makes the expected winner clear, but it can be a real challenge to decide if the favorite is worth being so heavily favored. When a team (more…)

Consistency is the best friend of NBA sports bettors. When a NBA team consistently plays in the same style and with the same effort then it can be relatively easy to bet on them because you know what you can expect from them. When a professional basketball team lacks consistency, though, (more…)

The pressure to win in the NBA is intense, so it is not at all uncommon to see teams – even serious contenders – significantly overhaul their team from the end of one season to the beginning of the next. Teams will frequently go into a season with more than half (more…)

Each year in the NBA there always seems to be an intense race for the last couple of playoff spots in each conference. Sometimes the fight is among very good teams, while other times it’s just lousy teams moving towards an inevitable, quick loss in the first round of the playoffs. (more…)

Several times each year teams in the NBA are forced to play two games on consecutive nights. That situation can be particularly challenging for teams – they are typically played on the road, so teams face tough travel on a short schedule between challenging games. It rarely brings out the best (more…)

As a NBA bettor there are few things more thrilling to find than a team that is playing much better than their record indicates. That often means that the team has a record against the spread (ATS) that is significantly better than their record. The general betting public is driven by (more…)

In the NBA there are a few different tiers of teams each season. There are those teams that just aren’t very good. They aren’t going to make the playoffs, or if they do they won’t be above .500 and they won’t be particularly competitive. There are teams that are pretty good. (more…)

There are two kinds of NBA games – those that are nationally televised, and those that aren’t. The ones that are on TV – like on ESPN or TNT –  often feature more popular teams playing more interesting matchups. Combine that with the added attention the media gives a televised game (more…)

Every year in the NBA there seems to be a small handful of good teams that disappoint early in the season. They enter the year with high expectations – to make the playoffs in style and make some noise when they get there. After a significant number of games have passed, (more…)

Public NBA bettors love superstars, so they will make their betting decisions based largely on the reputations of the superstars on the court. Unless there is a significant reason to do so the public is very slow to adjust those reputations to reflect current reality. That means that if a superstar (more…)