What are the biggest factors affecting the NBA?

**Dark Horse** · 03-03-09, 05:30 PM

A pretty lady in the third row behind the basket for Shaq to dive into.

**coldhardfacts** · 03-03-09, 05:47 PM

MATCHUPS are the primary factor, as they are in any sport. If you refrain from betting overmatched teams, and bet only equally matched or superior teams where the point spread is not unreasonable, you will do well in the long run. The Bucks are the only team that meets that criteria tonight.

**pokernut9999** · 03-03-09, 05:47 PM

Check out teams that travel across the coast and look at their first game back home.

East coast teams that travel west or west coast teams that travel east fair poorly their first game back home.

**Dark Horse** · 03-04-09, 04:56 PM

The NBA is rather complicated. You probably want to divide up the season in five or six parts and set different parameters for each, and keep separate records/methods for each.

The one thing that will jump out in the NBA is that teams often don't care. They take the night off. Beginning gamblers are frustrated by this, but more experienced bettors can use it to their advantage.

From my perspective the easiest part of the season is from the ASB to the end of the regular season. Why? Because motivation is easy to predict. The finish is in sight, and teams are focused on it.

The part of the season before that, the 'Long Midseason Stretch' (from January 1st until the ASB) is completely different. This is when teams struggle with the length of the season, and this part of the season is marked by motivational fluctuations. If you know what to look for you can identify motivational mini trends during this period.

I can't be more specific, because it took me years to figure out. If you're going to strictly build a numbers-based system, you may want to focus on totals. Totals are far less subject to whether or not a team shows up than wins/losses.