Spurs part of wild showdown in NBA West
All 16 playoff teams have been decided as the NBA winds down its regular season with just three days left, but that doesn't mean there aren't any critical games left on the slate as teams jockey for playoff seeding. The Western Conference is a complete mess with the Los Angeles Lakers secured in the No. 1 slot and the San Antonio Spurs part of a 4-team scramble for positions 2-5 will all four just a game apart.
Welcome to the wacky world of NBA basketball in the final week before the playoffs.
This is a special time of year for handicappers. All the power rankings in the world won’t get you to the pay window now, because the teams in play this week aren’t necessarily the same ones we saw earlier in the season. Some are resting players for the postseason. Others are resting players in order to evaluate young talent, which is often a polite way of saying that they’re (gasp) trying to lose an extra game or two in order to improve their chances at the draft lottery. Then you have that precious handful of teams that are giving it the proverbial 110 percent in the quest for a higher playoff seed.
Not every bettor out there understands the difference in attitude that comes when high stakes are attached or removed from a game situation. Anyone who’s a parent (or chooses to live in eternal childhood like Yours Truly) can tell you about the value of rewards. Some bettors – including a cross-section of otherwise bright statheads who don’t get out and mingle enough – think that getting paid millions of dollars a year to play basketball is reward enough to coax a full effort from an athlete on an everyday basis. But it’s not always about the Benjamins, especially when you’ve already got a lot.
You can rest assured the teams involved in the key playoff battles will give as full an effort as they have all season. The highest stakes are in the Western Conference, where three clubs were tied at 52-28 at press time: the No. 3 San Antonio Spurs (39-39-2 ATS), the No. 4 Houston Rockets (39-40-1 ATS) and the No. 5 Portland Trail Blazers (43-36 ATS). There’s a drop-off in talent between that pack and the next tier, so whoever nails down the third seed in the West will have the most favorable first-round matchup. The other two will have to play each other.
All three of these teams are locked in divisional races that will ultimately determine who gets home-court advantage in the opening round(s). The Spurs and Rockets are battling each other in the Southwest, while Portland is a game behind the No. 2 Denver Nuggets (53-27 SU, 43-36-1 ATS) in the Northwest. Conveniently enough, the Blazers and Nuggets wrap up the NBA regular season on Wednesday at the Rose Garden, and on ESPN no less at 10:30 p.m. Eastern. What happens in Game No. 81 for both clubs will determine the stakes and the betting odds for Game No. 82.
The lower seeds in the West will be scrambling to stay out of the No. 8 spot currently held by the Utah Jazz at 47-33 SU (38-42 ATS). That seed comes with the deadly fate of squaring off against the No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers (64-17 SU, 42-39 ATS) in the first round. The Lakers are the heavy favorites to win the Western Conference this year at 4-9. A similar dogfight exists in the East, where nobody in his right mind wants to face LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers (65-15 SU, 48-32 ATS) at 4-7 odds to reach the NBA Finals.
Here’s how the bottom of the Eastern playoff race shapes up:
6. Philadelphia 76ers (40-40 SU, 36-42-2 ATS)
7. Chicago Bulls (40-40 SU, 41-38-1 ATS)
8. Detroit Pistons (39-41 SU, 34-46 ATS)
The rebuilding Pistons are on the brink here, but they are arguably in the best position of all three to stave off a first-round series with the Cavs. It starts on Monday night with a critical Bulls-Pistons matchup at the Palace of Auburn Hills (7:30 p.m., NBA-TV). Detroit is a 4-point favorite to move into a tie with Chicago, and the Pistons would seize the tiebreaker with a victory on Monday. Meanwhile, Philadelphia finishes the season with a pair of games against the other two elite teams in the East, the No. 2 Boston Celtics (60-20 SU, 41-39 ATS) and the No. 3 Orlando Magic (58-22 SU, 48-31-1 ATS). The Sixers should get an extra bump in betting value now that Boston and Orlando are locked into their seeds and more likely to take their foot off the gas pedal.
At the other end of the standings, the Sacramento Kings (16-64 SU, 37-43 ATS) have already won the race for the bottom, further validating the deals and salary dumps they made at the trade deadline. But there’s a race for the second-worst record between the Los Angeles Clippers (19-61 SU, 32-48 ATS) and the Washington Wizards (19-61 SU, 31-47-2 ATS). Each team has one game left at home and one on the road; the road game is a natural tank opportunity, while the season finale in front of long-suffering loyal paying customers should be the opposite. At least, one would hope so.
All 16 playoff teams have been decided as the NBA winds down its regular season with just three days left, but that doesn't mean there aren't any critical games left on the slate as teams jockey for playoff seeding. The Western Conference is a complete mess with the Los Angeles Lakers secured in the No. 1 slot and the San Antonio Spurs part of a 4-team scramble for positions 2-5 will all four just a game apart.
Welcome to the wacky world of NBA basketball in the final week before the playoffs.
This is a special time of year for handicappers. All the power rankings in the world won’t get you to the pay window now, because the teams in play this week aren’t necessarily the same ones we saw earlier in the season. Some are resting players for the postseason. Others are resting players in order to evaluate young talent, which is often a polite way of saying that they’re (gasp) trying to lose an extra game or two in order to improve their chances at the draft lottery. Then you have that precious handful of teams that are giving it the proverbial 110 percent in the quest for a higher playoff seed.
Not every bettor out there understands the difference in attitude that comes when high stakes are attached or removed from a game situation. Anyone who’s a parent (or chooses to live in eternal childhood like Yours Truly) can tell you about the value of rewards. Some bettors – including a cross-section of otherwise bright statheads who don’t get out and mingle enough – think that getting paid millions of dollars a year to play basketball is reward enough to coax a full effort from an athlete on an everyday basis. But it’s not always about the Benjamins, especially when you’ve already got a lot.
You can rest assured the teams involved in the key playoff battles will give as full an effort as they have all season. The highest stakes are in the Western Conference, where three clubs were tied at 52-28 at press time: the No. 3 San Antonio Spurs (39-39-2 ATS), the No. 4 Houston Rockets (39-40-1 ATS) and the No. 5 Portland Trail Blazers (43-36 ATS). There’s a drop-off in talent between that pack and the next tier, so whoever nails down the third seed in the West will have the most favorable first-round matchup. The other two will have to play each other.
All three of these teams are locked in divisional races that will ultimately determine who gets home-court advantage in the opening round(s). The Spurs and Rockets are battling each other in the Southwest, while Portland is a game behind the No. 2 Denver Nuggets (53-27 SU, 43-36-1 ATS) in the Northwest. Conveniently enough, the Blazers and Nuggets wrap up the NBA regular season on Wednesday at the Rose Garden, and on ESPN no less at 10:30 p.m. Eastern. What happens in Game No. 81 for both clubs will determine the stakes and the betting odds for Game No. 82.
The lower seeds in the West will be scrambling to stay out of the No. 8 spot currently held by the Utah Jazz at 47-33 SU (38-42 ATS). That seed comes with the deadly fate of squaring off against the No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers (64-17 SU, 42-39 ATS) in the first round. The Lakers are the heavy favorites to win the Western Conference this year at 4-9. A similar dogfight exists in the East, where nobody in his right mind wants to face LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers (65-15 SU, 48-32 ATS) at 4-7 odds to reach the NBA Finals.
Here’s how the bottom of the Eastern playoff race shapes up:
6. Philadelphia 76ers (40-40 SU, 36-42-2 ATS)
7. Chicago Bulls (40-40 SU, 41-38-1 ATS)
8. Detroit Pistons (39-41 SU, 34-46 ATS)
The rebuilding Pistons are on the brink here, but they are arguably in the best position of all three to stave off a first-round series with the Cavs. It starts on Monday night with a critical Bulls-Pistons matchup at the Palace of Auburn Hills (7:30 p.m., NBA-TV). Detroit is a 4-point favorite to move into a tie with Chicago, and the Pistons would seize the tiebreaker with a victory on Monday. Meanwhile, Philadelphia finishes the season with a pair of games against the other two elite teams in the East, the No. 2 Boston Celtics (60-20 SU, 41-39 ATS) and the No. 3 Orlando Magic (58-22 SU, 48-31-1 ATS). The Sixers should get an extra bump in betting value now that Boston and Orlando are locked into their seeds and more likely to take their foot off the gas pedal.
At the other end of the standings, the Sacramento Kings (16-64 SU, 37-43 ATS) have already won the race for the bottom, further validating the deals and salary dumps they made at the trade deadline. But there’s a race for the second-worst record between the Los Angeles Clippers (19-61 SU, 32-48 ATS) and the Washington Wizards (19-61 SU, 31-47-2 ATS). Each team has one game left at home and one on the road; the road game is a natural tank opportunity, while the season finale in front of long-suffering loyal paying customers should be the opposite. At least, one would hope so.