When two teams meet in the NBA Finals it isn’t the first time that they have faced each other all year. They are in different conferences, but NBA teams from those conferences have still played a pair of regular season games – one in each of their home arenas. Sports bettors (more…)

It seems like there is always a very surprising upset win by a serious underdog in each round of the NBA playoffs. Sometimes there is more than one. For NBA bettors these games are hard to figure out. Will the win give the underdog confidence and momentum going forward, or will (more…)

The NBA can never seem to achieve balance between their two conferences. As we head towards the NBA finals each year there always seems to be one conference that is significantly stronger than the other. Of course, it would be easy if it was always the same conference, but that is (more…)

Once the NBA Finals are set sports handicappers scramble to figure out how the teams match up, who has the edge and where the value is in futures bets and individual game lines. For serious NBA bettors this means looking back at every aspect of both teams that led to them (more…)

As soon as the pairing for the NBA Finals is known there is a rush for handicappers. There are futures bets to be made, and lines to be bet before the betting public unleashes on them. To take maximum advantage handicappers need to quickly get a sense of what the matchup (more…)

The last thing an NBA team wants when they start a playoff series is to lose the first two games. That puts them into a hole that can be difficult to recover. An 0-2 deficit is not the end of the line, and many good basketball teams have found themselves finding (more…)

The NBA playoffs go on forever, which means that sports bettors have ample opportunity to place bets and make a lot of cash as a total of 16 teams battle for the championship. If you’re thinking that handicapping the playoffs is the same as handicapping the regular NBA season, you’re wrong.

The (more…)

The demise of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2011 NBA playoffs is one of the most interesting case studies the NBA has provided in years. If you need a refresher, they entered the playoffs as the two-time defending champions, but things did not go well. They had far more trouble (more…)

The high seeds in the NBA playoffs are very dominant. For example, a number one seed has lost to a number eight just three times in NBA history. A sixth seed, the 1995 Houston Rockets, are the lowest seed ever to win it all. Generally there are a few teams each (more…)

Absolutely anything can happen in sports. Any bettor who has ever taken an outcome for granted knows how true that is. In the first round of the NBA playoffs, though, there are some teams that are as close to unbeatable as is possible in sports. Not every top seed is sure (more…)

I don’t really believe in momentum. NBA teams definitely can win multiple games, and it seems that wins can lead to more wins, but pointing at momentum as the cause for that is lazy. There are all sorts of factors that can lead to a winning streak – increased confidence, good (more…)

The NBA playoffs have arrived. Each year they bring two glorious months of brilliantly intense basketball action to bettors around the world. The NBA playoffs are great to bet on. They are, though, quite different from the regular season in a lot of ways, and quite challenging if you aren’t prepared (more…)

When the NBA Playoffs get underway a slew of public money comes into sports betting marketplace. Casual bettors that haven’t placed a wager all season long view playoff betting as a chance to enhance their NBA playoff experience. While almost all know how the NBA point spread works, we get a (more…)

Any sports bettor will tell you wagering on the NBA Finals is tough. Both teams are obviously in top form after having beaten some good teams to get to where they are. The teams aren’t particularly familiar with each other because the schedule limits their interaction during the regular season. Both (more…)

In the later rounds of the NBA playoffs it often seems as if the media has a clear bias – a strong lean towards one team in a series and against the other. If that media bias is strong, consistent and logical at least on the surface then it could have (more…)

It seems like every year in the NBA playoffs there are one or two games that turn into epic overtime battles – three or four periods of heart stopping thrill rides. Since overtime is so rare in the NBA, and so different than it is in other sports, it provides a (more…)

In the NBA playoffs – especially but certainly not exclusively in the first round – we often see one-sided games. These are games in which one side looks like they forgot to show up for the game and they lose by a wide margin. They are incredibly dull games, and they (more…)

When the NBA season ends a lot of basketball bettors just take a breath and then move on to their next sport to bet on. You are missing a big opportunity, though, if you don’t take a short time to look back at the past basketball season to see how it (more…)

The NBA playoffs can provide great drama and excellent betting opportunities. Because of that there are a lot of people who are very excited to see the playoffs arrive, and very eager to bet on the games once they are here. If you are too eager to jump in and bet (more…)

Successful sports betting, including wagering on the second round of the NBA Playoffs, is all about noticing the things that will have an impact on the outcome of games and figuring out how to exploit them. Sometimes the differences between one situation and another can be subtle on the surface, but (more…)

A lot of casual NBA bettors make a big mistake – they assume that betting on the NBA playoffs is just the same as betting on the regular season. That is true in some ways – the basketball team that scores the most points still wins, for example. There are some (more…)

NBA series bets can be a great way for sports bettors to find value in the playoffs. If you aren’t careful, though, they can also be very costly. Here are four mistakes people make when making these bets. By avoiding them you significantly increase your chances at making a profit over (more…)

Team depth, and the significance of it, is a tough concept for NBA bettors to deal with in the playoffs. Some basketball teams are obviously going to be deeper and more talented than others, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are going to be better suited for playoff success. In (more…)

Coaches are very significant in the NBA, and never more significant than in the league playoffs. Being a coach in the NBA is a thankless task because of the attitude of the players and the lack of job security in most situations. For sports bettors, a good coach can be worth (more…)