SportsBettingChamp.com Sports Blog

There are 11 games being played tonight and the most important, in my opinion of course, is Denver’s trip to New Orleans to face Chris Paul and not much else. New Orleans have won 3 straight going into tonight’s game albeit against weak opposition. Minnesota, Memphis and Golden State, the most recent on Sunday night, have all been beaten at the New Orleans Arena in the space of 6 days before the Hornets went into a 3 day rest period. The Hornets have won 12 of 15 since entering a 21 game period that features only six opponents that have winning records. A win tonight would see them leap frog Denver into 4th place in the Western Conference and if results go their way tonight they could have a share of 2nd place with Houston.

This feat will be made harder by the fact that Ryan Bowen, Hilton Armstrong, Peja Stojakovic and Tyson Chandler are all questionable for tonight’s game while Denver have no injury worries. The Nuggets themselves, are coming off a high-scoring loss at Phoenix 118-115 and in the ultra tight Western Conference every loss matters, only one division has been settled and that’s by the L.A Lakers who’d rode off into the distance long ago. It will be interesting to see how the Hornets’ defense copes with a team that averages over 100 points a game when New Orleans is only giving up an average of 93 points per game. The home team will need to be carried once again, by their talisman Chris Paul, who is averaging 22 points and 10 assists himself. It will be interesting to see how New Orleans copes with so many injuries especially given that they are heavy favourites.

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Only 4 games were played last night and it all went the way of the form book. In the Windy City Chicago were able to beat the Pistons 99-91 to close the gap on Detroit to one game. Derrick Rose was questionable before the game started and eventually did not play a part in the Bulls’ win; Kirk Hinrich filled in at point guard and gave a solid contribution of 24 points and 8 assists. Detroit were never in their groove at the United Center and this showed when you looked back on the game and saw that their largest lead was 2 points whilst the Bulls managed to let the Pistons back from a lead of 19. Detroit were without Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson and it showed, they’ve now lost 5 of their last 6 and are only 3 games in front of the advancing Charlotte Bobcats, who play Washington tonight in a vital game.

The Lakers managed to blow out the Oklahoma City Thunder, 107-89, in Oklahoma. With the Thunder springing surprises at home this season an upset was on the cards if Kobe Bryant couldn’t step up. Luckily for L.A he did step up with 19 points before taking the 4th quarter off. This doesn’t look like much but 4 of the Lakers’ 5 starters got into double figure including Pau Gasol, who himself dropped a double double (14-14rebounds). The Lakers were never in trouble, they had a 17 point lead at the end of the 1st quarter and a 24 point lead at half time. Durant led the Thunder, like usual, with 24 points but could do nothing as L.A ran rampant.

In San Antonio the Spurs managed to avoid losing a third straight home game. But only just. In their last two games they were the victim to last gasp losses against Boston, 80-77 and Houston, 87-85 and managed to avoid the same against Golden State, who were leading with less than 30 seconds left before Roger Mason made an 18-footer with 23.9 seconds left. Then bizarrely after Kurt Thomas managed to miss both free throws that would have seen them easily through, Don Nelson decided not to call a timeout and Monta Ellis was made to run up court and throw up a running 3 pointer, which he missed. With this win San Antonio went back above Houston into 2nd place in the West and 1st place in the Southwest Division by a half game.

Finally Utah carried on their fantastic home form with a win over Western Conference rivals Houston in Salt Lake City, 99-86. Without Tracy McGrady Houston has done surprisingly well going 15-4 since he was confirmed out for the season. They couldn’t stop Carlos Boozer and co. from winning though, despite 3 double doubles from their starters; Luis Scola (10-12rebounds), Yao Ming (14-13rebounds) and Ron Artest’s (13-11rebounds) good numbers were all in vain as the Jazz prevailed to leap into 6th place in the West, a half game in front of 7th placed Portland.

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Only 4 games on tonight and only 2 have any real importance, Detroit - Chicago and Houston - Utah. We’ll focus on the former.

Chicago have the majority of their remaining fixtures at home and this will please them, they’re currently 21-12 at the United Center. After winning a close one in Washington 101-99 they come back home to face the stuttering Detroit Pistons, who are clinging onto 7th place in the East one place in front of Chicago.

The Pistons’ last game was a 5 point loss at home to the Miami Heat, 101-96 on Sunday night. Much of the Pistons recent bad form can be put down to injuries, Allen Iverson has missed the last 13 games with a back problem and won’t play tonight while Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince are all questionable. One player that they were pleased to see back was Rodney Stuckey, who scored 24 points in Sunday’s defeat. Detroit haven’t been getting the rub of the green recently, 4 of their last 5 games have been lost by 5 points or fewer. This is a game that they don’t want to lose, you feel once they lose the 7th spot they’ll have a hard time getting it back.

Chicago, meanwhile, have won 6 of their last 10 and combined with the Pistons’ poor form means that they have a chance at getting a better match-up in the first round of the play-offs. This all without Luol Deng, who’s missed 11 straight games due to a stress fracture in his right shin. Luckily the Bulls aren’t a one man team and has Ben Gordon, who’s averaging 20 points a game, John Salmons, averaging 22 points a game since he was inserted into the starting line up 11 games ago and Derrick Rose, who’s averaging 16 points a game. Chicago are seen as heavy favourites but with Detroit’s inconsistency it’s hard to tell what’s going to happen.

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7 games were played in the NBA on Monday night, exactly the same as Sunday night. A couple of upsets but you had to wait a while before you saw them.

The first game of the night was Atlanta’s clean win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, 107-97. Al Horford had a double double (12-13rebounds) in this game while Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby both chipped in with 20 points a piece. Atlanta are fighting off a good Miami team for the 4th spot in the East with a late surge and are now 8-2 in their last 10 games and have only lost 7 games at home all season. A scary prospect for Miami, who are currently 5th seed and would have to play them in the Conference Quarter-Finals with the home-court advantage being in Atlanta. Minnesota will welcome back Al Jefferson, their star power forward, from injury in the post-season and boy are they missing him.

At the Verizon Center in Washington the Bulls narrowly escaped falling to the Wizards late in the 4th quarter after a spirited comeback by Antawn Jamison (who went on a solo 8-0 run) saw Washington come back from 10 down with 6 minutes to go to only be behind by 1. Unfortunately Washington only really had one player while Chicago had 3 stand out performers. Brad Miller came off the bench for a double double (11-10rebounds), Ben Gordon dropped 21 and John Salmons had 19 including shooting all 8 of his foul shots in a tight game. This win keeps Chicago firmly in 8th spot, 1 and a half games in front of 9th placed Charlotte and 2 games behind 7th placed Detroit.

The L.A Clippers managed an upset of sorts, they managed to win a quarter of play in Boston. The 2nd quarter to be precise and this was largely done by holding Boston to only 13 points, this didn’t make much difference though Boston still went into half-time leading 44-42. After that wake up call the Celtics finally started playing and rallied in the second half to win by 13 points, 90-77. Performances to note were Zach Randolph’s double double (17-14rebounds), Kendrick Perkins’ double double (12-13rebounds) and most importantly Kevin Garnett’s 12 points and 18 minutes of play, in which time he managed to shoot 5 of 5 from the field and made both of his free throws. That sight will have pleased the Celtics, even if they had to work harder than they had hoped in this game.

Miami coasted to victory at home to the Memphis Grizzlies, 94-82. At the end of the 3rd quarter they had a lead of 18 before letting Memphis win the last quarter by six points. Jamaal Magloire helped himself to a double double (10-12rebounds) and Dwayne Wade led the Heat with 27 points and 8 assists.

Orlando made hard work of beating the Knicks at Madison Square Garden last night. New York were leading by 9 going into the 4th quarter before the Magic staged a comeback thanks to Dwight Howard’s double double (29-14rebounds) and Courtney Lee’s 22 points. Orlando looked sluggish throughout and shot only 28 percent from behind the arc with 25 attempts and 44 percent shooting from the field. They were also only 71 percent from the foul line but still managed to win against the hapless Knicks. Any hopes of the play-offs must surely now be dead for New York, who dropped to 4 and a half games behind 8th place. The Magic are getting closer and closer to winning their division.

Phoenix managed to keep Dallas within touching distance with a 118-115 win over the Denver Nuggets. Phoenix, who are still hoping for a Dallas collapse, gave up 3 figures for the umpteenth time this season but their strategy of out-shooting their opponents worked again. Grant Hill managed a double double (23-10rebounds) along with the game winning jumper and Shaq had 19 points, shooting 6 for 8 from the field. Denver are now tied with New Orleans in the Western Conference standings, with both teams 11 games out of 1st place. This loss opened up the Northwest Division with Utah and Portland both only 1 game behind the Nuggets.

Finally the 76ers went into Portland and won in overtime, 114-108. With Denver losing Portland will be ruing this loss which would have seen them tie the Nuggets at the top of the Northwest. Andre Miller lead Philadelphia with 27 points and 10 rebounds with Iguodala and Thaddeus Young both dropping 25 points. Brandon Roy had an off night, shooting 5 for 18 from the field for only 12 points despite playing 46 minutes. The Sixers kept the pressure on Miami for 5th spot in the East and are still only a game and half behind the Heat.

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The most interesting game tonight sees the Denver Nuggets go to the Phoenix Suns. Both teams have different agenda, Denver, who’ve won 5 straight are looking to increase their lead at the top of the Northwest Division and climb up the tight fight for the top 4 places in the West. Phoenix, who’ve won 4 straight are looking to keep the pressure on 8th placed Dallas, who are 3 and a half games in front of them.

Denver has J.R. Smith to thank for his large contribution during their 5 game streak. He’s been averaging 22 points, 7 more than his season average, and shooting nearly 50 percent from behind the arc. He scored a season high 40 points against the admittedly poor Washington Wizards and made 3 3 pointers, the ninth time in ten games he’s managed to hit more than 2 from long range.

Phoenix are in danger of missing the play-offs for the first time since 2004 due to an season ending injury to Amare Stoudemire and six straight losses earlier in the month. In their last game however they managed a nice win against the lowly Wizards 128-96. Shaq had 13 points and looked menacing something the Suns hope will prevail again tonight. Steve Nash will also be hoping to continue his good run against the Nuggets, he has 13 double doubles in his last 17 games against Denver, averaging 19 points in those games.

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There were 7 games played out in the NBA last night, all of which produced nothing in the way of excitement. Still it’s better to cling to the small traces of excitement that were found last night so we’ll start there:

The only game of real note that wasn’t an upset on the cards was the match-up between Houston and San Antonio in San Antonio. The Rockets went there hoping to beat the 2nd placed Spurs and in the process leapfrog them into 2nd place and the lead of the South West Division. Houston, who’ve had many injury problems recently (not least the loss of Tracy McGrady to surgery that will see him out of the post-season), produced a performance worthy of the 2nd seed in the Western Conference. Always reliable Yao Ming passed to Luis Scola underneath the basket for an easy lay-up with just over 10 seconds left to cap an 87-85 road win to put them a slim half game in front of the Spurs.

Other games include Miami going into Detroit and beating the on again off again Pistons 101-96 with the help of Dwayne Wade, who dropped a nice 39 points. This game was level going into the 4th quarter before Miami decided to put Detroit to bed and swished 34 points. Detroit are one game behind .500 now and looking over their shoulders again. They could really use some help from the Washington Wizards, who are playing the 8th placed Chicago Bulls tonight. If Chicago win there will only be 1 and a half games between them. Scary.

Minnesota can be forgiven for wanting the season to end quickly, like the 6 other sub .400 teams in the West. This is possibly why they lost to the rapidly improving Oklahoma City Thunder, who have gone a respectable 5-5 in their last 10 games. Well it’s respectable when compared to the other 5 aforementioned teams who’ve gone 4-6, 2-8, 2-8, 2-8, 2-8 in their last 10. Kevin Durant carried the Thunder like usual, this time posting up 30 points, apart from him only Jeff Green’s contribution of 17 stands out. Minnesota head coach Kevin McHale seemed to realise halfway through this game that he’d got his team selection wrong which is probably why the majority of the ‘Wolves points came from their bench including a double double from point forward Craig Smith (19-10rebounds).

The Toronto Raptors easily saw off the poor L.A Clippers, who are another one of the aforementioned 6 really bad Western Conference teams. Incidentally Toronto are one of the two teams in the East that have absolutely nothing to play for. They managed to beat the Clippers by 24 points so it’s not all bad however, with the line-up they have the Raptors will want to see a push for the play-offs next season.

Cleveland managed to avoid an upset at the hands of New Jersey so keep firm hold of the top spot in the East. LeBron was again the man chipping in with another double double (30-11rebounds) to match Anderson Varejao’s lesser double double (16-11rebounds). Vince Carter wasn’t able to have the game-changing performance he wanted, only dropping an average 25 points. Cleveland rarely looked in danger and the Nets are 2 games off 8th place now so need to start winning.

New Orleans came home after time on the road to beat the Golden State Warriors by 10 points, 99-89. A comfortable win against a team that they had previously lost to at the New Orleans Arena earlier in the season. They were without Chris Paul that day though, unsurprisingly he led his team in scoring last night, helping himself to 27 points and 8 rebounds to keep the Hornets sniffing for a top 4 spot in the West.

Finally the Sixers went to the league-worst Sacramento Kings and won 112-100. Having established a 26 point lead at half time Philadelphia let their foot off the gas and Sacramento managed to get that figure back to something respectable. All of the Kings’ starters got double figures including double doubles for Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes which just shows that the Kings don’t have a bench. Iguodala (who is still not a breed of lizard) lead the 76ers points wise with 27 to make sure they took advantage of Detroit’s loss and extend their lead to 1 and half game in front of 7th place.

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The biggest game tonight is not the big Western Conference game between the Spurs and the Rockets but the lesser game between the Cavs and the New Jersey Nets. This is last chance saloon for the Nets who are a game and a half behind 8th place. They’ve won 2 straight but a win against Cleveland will really signal that they have some momentum to see them into the race for that last place.

Devin Harris has been out recently but Chris Douglas-Roberts has stepped into that large void and in the last two games has dropped 14 and 18 points. A win tonight would push New Jersey so, so close to the promised land, only a half game behind the Chicago Bulls. It couldn’t be against a better team though, the Cavs have won 8 straight and good whilst doing it. This time the string of wins have been against some good teams, Orlando, Portland, Atlanta to name a few.

On Saturday night against Atlanta the most impressive stat was their defense, which held the Hawks to 42.9 percent shooting. This recent surge has allowed them to open up a 4 game gap over 2nd placed Boston, if they can hold onto the 1st place then they would play the 8th placed team which could be the Nets. LeBron James will be hoping to earn his 24th double double of the season while the Nets’ Vince Carter will be hoping to drop more than his average of 21 points if New Jersey are to spring a surprise.

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7 games were played in the NBA last night and with it a shed load of missed opportunities:

The Cavs managed to beat the Atlanta Hawks and in doing so won their 8th straight game. This game was over quite quickly, early in the second quarter Cleveland had a 24 point lead and the Cavs don’t give up those kind of leads at home. LeBron James wasn’t his team’s highest scorer for the first time in ages, only scoring 22 while Mo Williams scored 24 and had 7 assists. Not much in terms of play-off excitement here, both teams know they’ve made the post-season.

The same goes for Orlando’s win over the New York Knicks. The Knicks have tried to cling onto a hope that they could make a push for the last spot in the Eastern Conference but even they must know that that hope evaporated when they lost at home to the Sacramento Kings. Rasheed Lewis had 27 points and 4 rebounds to help the Magic to a comfortable 110-103 home win.

Boston easily beat Memphis in Memphis 105-87, the biggest story of the game being the return of Kevin Garnett who’s been sorely missed by the Celtics in the past couple of weeks. He played 17 minutes and sat out of the entire 4 quarter and managed 10 points and 4 boards. Filling his place throughout the night was Glen Davis, who had 24 points and 5 rebounds to keep the team in green rolling.

Surprisingly Phoenix managed to keep a team in double figures, although it was only the Wizards and they were at home. This was an easy win to keep the pressure on the Dallas Mavericks, who didn’t play last night, who are 3 and a half games ahead of them. Shaquille O’Neal had a double double and Jason Richardson had 35 points and 7 rebounds to see Washington off by a margin of 32 points, 128-96.

Now we get onto the missed opportunities, Portland came out of Milwaukee with a win, no real surprise there the Bucks aren’t that good. Brandon Roy did the business again helping his team with 30 points and 7 assists to get them to a 96-84 road win. This has no doubt hurt the Bucks who needed this win to keep them in the hunt for the final spot in the East, especially needed if Chicago or Charlotte won their home games…

Firstly the easiest of the two home games, Indiana went into Charlotte with a road record of 9-28 against the ‘Cats home record of 20-16. No contest you would think but the Pacers, who themselves hope to make a run for the play-offs only being 3 and a half games off 8th, with Danny Granger back shocked the Bobcats, only giving up 9 points to Diaw and co. in the 3rd quarter to win 108-83 with Jarrett Jack helping himself to 31 points and 13 of 14 field goals. Milwaukee were thankful.

And then thankful again as the L.A Lakers went into Chicago and beat them by 8. Pau Gasol gave the Lakers a double double and Kobe Bryant chipped in with 28 points to help the Western Conference leaders come back from 24-34 down at the end of the 1st quarter. So who were the real winners from those 3 losses, well Detroit were.

If Chicago had won they would have been a game behind the stuttering Pistons while the Bobcats would have been only 2 games behind. I doubt even the Pistons head coach Mike Curry knows which Pistons team will turn up each night so to still have a cushion on the teams directly below them after going 5-5 in the last 10 games will be a relief.

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The biggest game tonight is between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Milwaukee Bucks. Milwaukee badly need a win to keep their play-off push on track, in their last 10 games they’ve gone 3-7 to take them out of contention for the last play-off place in the East just as Charlotte and Chicago are warming up. Portland themselves, will be looking to make a push for the 2nd spot in the West and are only 2 and a half games off San Antonio in a Conference that’s very congested. Even 8th placed Dallas could conceivably make a push for the 2nd seed.

The ‘Blazers nearly gave Cleveland their 2 home loss of the season on Thursday but just fell short losing 97-92 and only managed one field goal in the overtime period, a 3 pointer from Steve Blake. Portland haven’t made the post-season since 2003 but barring a massive collapse seem to be there this season, like many teams in the West it’s all about which seed they can get. They’ll be hoping that their less than stellar road record (15-20) won’t let them down tonight as they look to make up a game on the Spurs, who lost last night. Milwaukee will need to stop their slide if they hope to make the play-offs and a home game is exactly where they’ll be hoping to stop that slide where they’re 20-15 all season. Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez and LaMarcus Aldridge are all questionable for tonight’s game which will please the Bucks as combined they average over 50 points a game. Each team are coming off a loss and another loss tonight could see them damaged permanently.

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Yesterday there was another bumper load of fixtures in the NBA, 11 in total:

Dallas managed to come away from Indiana with a hard-fought win thanks to Dirk Nowitzki step-back jumper with only a few seconds to go to win 94-92. Dallas really needed this win and are establishing a safe distance between them and Phoenix for the 8th spot in the West, 4 games now.

Charlotte never looked in trouble away to the Toronto Raptors, always keeping the Canadian team at an arm’s length throughout the game. Wallace and Diaw had 30 points each to help the ‘Cats to a 102-89 win. They’re now only one game off 8th placed Chicago and have won 3 straight now, play-off form some might say.

Dwayne Wade returned for the Miami Heat but couldn’t stop them from losing away to the New Jersey Nets who have looked shaky at home all season. Wade had 27 points but couldn’t carry the team on his own. The Nets still have a sniff of the play-offs but will have to become more consistent if they want to make a run for the 8th spot in the East where they are a number of teams vying for that place.

The Knicks definitely ruled themselves out of the post-season losing at home. At home. To the Sacramento Kings who had only won 4 games away from home before last night. This wasn’t even a close loss, this was a blow out. The Kings won by 25 points and never looked in danger, winning every quarter of play. To put this into perspective before this game the Kings hadn’t won against an Eastern Conference team in 28 games.

New Orleans made tough work of the Memphis Grizzlies, who were leading by 1 going into the 4th quarter before the Hornets pulled away to finally win 96-84. Chris Paul did most of the work again with 32 points to keep New Orleans in the 5th Western spot.

Detroit are trying their best to keep their play-off bid on track, last night winning 108-90 to keep their record at .500. They’re clinging onto the 7th spot in the East but will definitely need to push the 76ers out of 6th spot if they’re to get anywhere in the post-season. This is doable though, Philadelphia are only 1 game ahead of them but the Pistons have looked sluggish one minute and ok the next and so will need to get a bit of form going if they’re to challenge the Sixers for 6th.

The Utah Jazz managed an easy win away to the Oklahoma City Thunder and in doing so leapfrogged Portland into 6th which would see them playing Houston in the first round of the play-offs, a much easier prospect than No.2 San Antonio. Houston themselves won at home to Minnesota 107-88 with Ron Artest helping them out with 20 points.

Boston escaped San Antonio with a win after the Spurs missed 6 late free throws to lose 77-80. The Spurs still look a certainty for the 2nd seed in the West though. The Celtics will be encouraged by the fact that they can grind out wins on the road as they look forward to the play-offs in April. Another team looking forward to the play-offs are the Denver Nuggets who managed a comfortable win at home to the lowly Wizards, they now occupy 4th spot in the West and lastly Golden State managed a win in a shootout with Philadelphia 119-111. Things are looking up for Golden State who must surely be looking for a play-off push next season.

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