SportsBettingChamp.com Sports Blog

The final day in the NBA was pretty meaningless for most of the teams, the only thing left to fight for was seedings in the play-offs so if your team weren’t already in the play-offs they were presumably reading holiday brochures at half time. However 13 games means a choc-a-block round up before this blog focuses on the baseball for a couple of days while waiting for the Conference Quarter Finals to begin. If you’re wondering why your team’s game hasn’t been featured in today’s round up it’s because the game was meaningless and frankly this writer doesn’t want to work on anything that’s pointless. J

After that trimming of the schedule it leaves us with 5 all important games to cover starting in Chicago where the Bulls picked the worst night to have a blow out defeat. Just when you wanted to end the season on a high and maybe get a better seed the Bulls accidentally lost very, very badly to the Toronto Raptors. At home. Not exactly play-off material and this could have repercussions on Chicago’s play-off hopes in general. A win last night would have seen them move up to 6th seed to face the Orlando Magic, a team they might have had a good chance against, however as 7th seed they are now confined to have to play the Boston Celtics, a much harder task.

They lost this one 109-98 at the United Center and Shawn Marion was the architect for the Raptors scoring 34 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for a double double while Chris Bosh scored 21 and grabbed 19 rebounds for his double double.

Next up in Cleveland there was another shock win with the Sixers beating the Cavs, who had only lost once at home all season, to gain 6th seed in the East and the right to play Orlando in the Quarter Finals. Philly kept the Cavs (minus LeBron who didn’t play any part) close all game and took this one into over time before winning 111-110. Andre Miller scored a team high 30 while Andre Iguodala scored 24 in a win that saw Philadelphia end the season .500, the same as Chicago but the 76ers held the season tie breaker so jumped above the Bulls.

We move into the Western Conference with the next game and the Dallas Mavericks ensured they’ll have a better chance at going deep into the post season by beating the Houston Rockets at home, 95-84. This win coupled with New Orleans’ loss meant that the Mavs climbed into 6th spot and will now face San Antonio in the first round. For Houston however, it means that they drop down to 5th spot to face Portland without home court advantage. Everything that could’ve got wrong for the Rockets went wrong last night, they lost, San Antonio won and Portland won meaning they tumbled down the rankings after things were looking so promising earlier in the day. Dirk Nowitzki again came up trumps for the Mavericks with 30 points and 15 rebounds for a double double while Jason Terry had 23 points from the bench.

Next to the aforementioned San Antonio where the Spurs beat the New Orleans Hornets to grab 3rd seed, home court advantage and the Southwest Division title. They will now face Dallas in the first round where as New Orleans, with this loss, are confined to play the Denver Nuggets. The Spurs won this one 105-98 and can thank Tony Parker for his instrumental part in the win, Parker had 29 points on the night and 6 assists while team mate Tim Duncan had a double double with 20 points and 19 rebounds.

Finally in Portland the ‘Blazers ensured they had home court advantage for at least one round of the post-season with a blow out win over Denver, 104-76. Denver didn’t play hard in this game since they were practically ensured 2nd place in the West and will play New Orleans in the first round. For Portland however they still needed to fight for their seeding, and so they did except it was their bench that did most of the fighting. The bench combined for 72 of the 104 Portland points with Travis Outlaw grabbing the most with 21 while Rudy Fernandez weighed in with 18 of his own. Portland will now play Houston in the first round with home court advantage which could prove vital for Brandon Roy and co.

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The biggest game tonight is between Houston and Dallas in Dallas. Houston can clinch their first division title in 15 years with a win over the Mavs and could finish as high as 2nd in the West if Denver slip up away to Portland. However if things go wrong and they lose they could fall as low as 5th and give up all important home court advantage as well as losing the division if San Antonio and Portland win (San Antonio are play at New Orleans).

As you can tell the Western Conference is tight and this applies to the Mavericks situation as well, if the Mavs win and New Orleans lose Dallas can pip the Hornets to the 6th seed. With L.A beating Utah last night it meant the Mavs could only finish 7th or higher, something that will please every Mavericks fan due to the fact that the Lakers have won 6 straight against Dallas.

Yao Ming is questionable for tonight’s game but everyone assumes with so much up for grabs the Rockets’ talisman will play, the same also goes to Josh Howard of the Mavericks. Houston will hope to replicate their early season win in Dallas to make sure they tie up the Southwest Division, they won by 10 points that day, 112-102. Tip off is at 8pm ET and the game is on ESPN.

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Only 3 games were played in the NBA on Wednesday in preparation for tonight’s end of season extravaganza.

In a match-up that’s likely to be repeated in 4 days time the Atlanta Hawks showed the Miami Heat some of what they can expect if they hold onto 5th place in the Eastern Conference. At the Philips Arena the Hawks won this one 81-79 in a game where the benches of each team got a lot of time on court, every player that was in uniform played some part in the game for both teams and due to this big numbers couldn’t really be put up by any individual player. Despite this Michael Beasley scored 23 points and 13 rebounds for Miami and Ronald Murray came off the Hawks’ bench to score 17 despite only shooting 5 of 20 from the field.

In Philadelphia the Boston Celtics powered past the 76ers with a 100-98 victory in another game that’s likely to be replicated in 4 days time. The men in green won this one due to Paul Pierce’s 31 points that led the Celtics while Tony Allen scored 18. This was likely to be Pierce’s last game before the play-offs (he’ll probably be rested for the home game against Washington tonight) so he made sure he had some form going into the post-season shooting 12 of 16 from the field including 7 of 9 from behind the arc.

Finally in L.A the Lakers warned the Jazz of what was likely to happen to them in under a week after beating them 125-112, and thus confining them to the 8th seed and a re-match in the Conference Quarter Finals. Andrew Bynum dropped a team high 22 points in half an hour on the court while Pau Gasol just missed out on a double double with 20 points and 9 rebounds. This was the Lakers’ last game and despite wanting to give their main players some time to find their rhythm before the play-offs started they gave all their players suited up some time on court at the Staples Center and will be confident of sweeping the Jazz in their upcoming series.

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The biggest game tonight is on the West Coast as the L.A Lakers play host to the Utah Jazz in a game that could be replicated in the first round of the play-offs unless Utah win. The Jazz have tiebreakers on their side so a win at the Staples Center tonight means that if New Orleans or Dallas lose their final games Utah will leapfrog them so 6th seed is still possible for a team that needs the highest seed it can get.

To have any chance of this though the Jazz, who have only won 2 games on the road against teams over .500, will need to beat a Lakers team that’s only lost 5 times at home all season and while L.A might want to rest some players for the upcoming post-season, they will also want to signal their intent to the Jazz.

To do this they’ll look to Kobe Bryant (averaging 27 points a game) to hit some shots early before possibly taking him out of the game. He’s isn’t the only Laker that will be looking to create some momentum going into the play-offs though, Pau Gasol (averaging 19) will want another double double to cap off a fine season in the yellow and purple uniform.

To make this task even harder of the Jazz they have significant injuries, C.J Miles is definitely out while Deron Williams and Mehmet Okur are both questionable to play in tonight’s game. Tip-off is at 10.30pm ET and the game’s on TNT.

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12 games were played in the NBA last night and a few things were wrapped up:

Starting in Indianapolis where the Cleveland Cavaliers secured the league’s best record with a win over the Pacers, 117-109. The Cavs will now have home advantage throughout the play-offs including the League Final and they won last night thanks to 37 points form LeBron James and 20 from Delonte West. Zydrunas Ilgauskas also got a double double with 16 points and 10 rebounds to see Cleveland to the win.

In Washington the Wizards gave up a 4 point lead to the Toronto Raptors with only 26 seconds left in the game to show why they’ve only won 19 games this season. Chris Bosh hit the game winning 3 pointer coolly to see the Raptors to a 97-96 win in their penultimate game of the season. Bosh ended the night with a double double combining 25 points with 15 rebounds and Toronto will hope for more of the same next season. The Wizards will want to make sure nothing unfortunate happens to Gilbert Arenas in the off-season so that they can make a push for the 2010 play-offs.

In Detroit Chicago made sure of at least 7th spot by winning beating the Pistons in a game that was called the “Avoid LeBron game”. Simply put whoever lost this was confined to face the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals as the 8th seed. Chicago managed to avoid this and keep their hopes of a .500+ season alive thanks to Ben Gordon’s lay up in the final seconds to win this one 91-88. Gordon scored 19 on the night while Derrick Rose led the Bulls with 24. This win moved the Bulls up to 6th seed in the East with the team that they pushed down (Philadelphia) playing tonight.

In New Jersey the Nets gave their home fans one final win before the season ended with a 91-87 win over the Charlotte Bobcats. To be fair the Bobcats this game wasn’t taken that seriously by their coach Larry Brown and this was underlined by the fact that 5 bench players had over 10 minutes on court.

Brook Lopez led the Nets with 18 points and 20 rebounds while Vince Carter scored 17. New Jersey will be disappointed that they couldn’t get into the play-off this season as a team that were expected to make a push where as the Bobcats will be encouraged by the second half of their season that saw them come oh so close to a play-off place which wasn’t expected.

In Milwaukee an under strength Orlando team were dispatched by the Bucks 98-80 after a promising 1st quarter. Coming into Wisconsin without Dwight Howard, Hedo Turkoglu and J.J Redick the odds were firmly against the Magic but they were encouraged by the first 12 minutes which saw them enter the 2nd quarter with a 6 point lead.

However after that it was one way traffic, the Bucks outscored them by 13 to establish a 7 point lead going into the half, a lead that they didn’t give away. Charlie Villanueva came off the bench to score 18 while Richard Jefferson scored 24 points as a starter. A small mention goes to Malik Allen, who scored 9 points, shooting 100 percent in the process.

In Dallas the Mavs nearly cost themselves a chance at the 6th spot in the West and made the prospect of playing the Lakers in the first round nearly inevitable. They needed a jumper from Jason Terry to finish off the Minnesota Timberwolves with only 0.2 seconds to go to win this one 96-94. Terry came off the bench to score 22 points while Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 34 points as a starter. This win kept the Mavericks in 7th spot in the West and kept their hopes of beating New Orleans to the 6th spot alive with a game to play.

The aforementioned New Orleans Hornets scored a season low 66 points in a loss at the Houston Rockets, a loss that sees them having to fight for a 6th seed that looked almost certain a few weeks ago if not higher. This win leaves the Rockets one win away from the Southwest Division title and they’ll hope to complete their first division title since 1994 by beating Dallas on Wednesday. They won this one thanks to Yao Ming’s 22 points while Shane Battier dropped 10 to see the Rockets win this one 86-66 in a defensive battle.

In Denver the Nuggets easily beat the Sacramento Kings but had to overcome an 8 point 1st quarter deficit in the process. The Nuggets won this one 118-98 and in it J.R Smith scored a career high 45 points while hitting a franchise best 11 3 pointers for the majority of his points. With this win the Nuggets secure at least the 3rd seed in the Western Conference and can clinch 2nd with a win over Portland in a day’s time. Due to Smith’s outrageous behind the arc shooting a game that was become tense turned into a bit of a laugh with the Kings intentionally fouling him to stop him from shooting. This led to 8 foul shots, all of which he made.

In Utah the Jazz avoided their 4th straight loss with a win over the lowly Clippers but the damage to their play-off hopes were already done by the time the bad streak was over. The Jazz are now in 8th spot, something that didn’t seen at all possible a few months ago when they were riding high in the West but their poor away from and a few bad home losses put paid to their hopes of home court advantage.

They’re now left to scrap for 7th seed, something that they’re unlikely to get, and if they are unable to get it will have to face Kobe and the Lakers in the first round. The won this game 106-85 though, with a sterling contribution from Carlos Boozer, who had a double double (20-13rebounds) while Paul Millsap came off the bench to score 19 with 11 rebounds.

In Phoenix the Suns played their penultimate home game of the season and won 119-110 against the Memphis Grizzlies. With the Suns eliminated from the play-offs a few days ago they were just playing the season out and as a results gave quite a bit of time to their bench. Shaq, one of the starters, still managed to lead Phoenix in scoring despite this fact and dropped 19 with Steve Nash collecting a double double with 18 points and 12 assists to give the Suns a victory.

In Portland the Trail Blazers kept their hopes of the Western Conference 3rd seed with a blow out win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, 113-83. With this win Portland, Houston, and San Antonio go into their final games of the season with identical 53-28 records. The ‘Blazers easily won this one thanks to Travis Outlaw’s 21 points while Brandon Roy scored 20, shooting 7 of 10 from the field. Portland have to host Denver in their last game in a game that will decide whether they get 3rd, 4th or 5th seed.

Finally San Antonio kept their end of the 3 way tie for 3rd seed in the West with a 101-72 win at Golden State. The Spurs will play New Orleans in Texas on Wednesday and ensured they could still get the 3rd seed thanks to Drew Gooden’s contribution from the bench.

Gooden scored 20 points and 15 rebounds to help San Antonio to their 53rd win of the season while Tim Duncan also had a double double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. The Spurs also still have a shot at the Southwest Division title and are still battling with the Houston Rockets, another thing that will be decided on Wednesday.

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There are only 3 days left in the NBA before the regular season ends and there are still a few things left to sort out. One of these things is the battle for the lower seeds in the Eastern Conference and with Chicago and Detroit playing each other the 8th seed could be wrapped up tonight.

If Chicago can win at the Palace of Auburn Hills they would be assured of at least the 7th seed at the right to play Boston but could then still beat Philadelphia for 6th seed and the right to face Orlando. This game will be hotly contested as whoever loses is likely to face Cleveland in the first round and near certain elimination.

The Bulls have found form at the right time though and are on a 4 game winning streak, most of these have been at home though, Chicago have dropped 9 of their last 11 away games though, only winning at Washington and Oklahoma, two of the worst teams in the league. Coupled with the fact that Luol Deng is out and Tim Thomas is questionable for tonight’s game a win will be quite hard.

The Bulls will want to fall back on star man Ben Gordon who is averaging 20 points a game while hoping that Derrick Rose (who’s averaging 16 points) can chip in with an above average performance in a game that could determine how far each team goes in the post-season. Tip off is at 7.30pm ET and the game’s on NBA TV.

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6 games were played in the NBA last night starting at the first game in New Orleans. The Hornets played the first game of the day against Dallas and won thanks to a 4th quarter blitz. With the scores level at 69 after 3 quarters New Orleans turned up the heat on the Mavs and held them to 23 points in the final 12 minutes and outscored them by 10 points to win this one 102-92. Chris Paul and David West both had 31 points with Paul shooting 11 of 15 from the field and no doubt helping West with 17 assists. New Orleans now sit at the top of the pile of 3 teams that aren’t good enough to battle for the Western Conference’s 2nd seed (along with Utah and Dallas) and sit in 6th place.

Cleveland moved to 39-1 at home for the season with a blowout win over the Boston Celtics, their main rivals in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs held Boston to only 9 1st quarter points to give themselves a 19 point lead going into half time and won 3 of the 4th quarter of play. LeBron James led them with 29 points while Zydrunas Ilgauskas got a double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Cavs to a 107-76 victory. Cleveland, who have already clinched the Eastern Conference’s 1st seed, can clinch home court advantage in the Finals (if they get that far) with a win in Indianapolis on Monday.

In Miami the Heat held off the New York Knicks thanks to a show stopping 55 points from talisman Dwyane Wade. In a high scoring game Wade wasn’t the only one to put up very good numbers, Michael Beasley dropped 28 points himself, and capped the night off with a double double after jumping for 16 rebounds in a 122-105 win. This win puts Miami into 5th spot in the East after Philadelphia loss to Toronto and with two games to go and Wade seemingly back at his best they’ll hope to cling onto that seed.

The aforementioned Philadelphia 76ers damaged their chances to getting into the second round of the play-offs with a road loss to the Toronto Raptors, 104-111. This loss meant the 76ers were pushed down to 6th spot in the Eastern Conference with two games to go and means that if they can’t get back to 5th they will be playing Orlando in the first round, a daunting task. All five of Toronto’s starters had solid games last night and every one of them scored double figures. Power forward Chris Bosh led them with 22 points while Jose Calderon had 11 points and the same number of assists for a double double to give Toronto their 31st win of the season.

In Sacramento the San Antonio Spurs had to rely on their main two starters to overcome the Kings in a tight 95-92 win. With Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan still out injured the Spurs were led by Tony Parker, who scored 25 while their other big player Roger Mason dropped 22. This win kept San Antonio in the hunt for 2nd spot in the West and in a 3 way tie for 3rd place with Houston and Portland with two games to play.

Finally in Los Angeles the Lakers comfortably beat the Memphis Grizzlies 92-75. L.A encounted no trouble whatsoever winning 3 quarters of play and tying one in a game when they needn’t get out of first gear. They let most of their bench have time on the court and due to this Kobe Bryant only had 16 points while Andrew Bynum led with 18. Pau Gasol got his usual double double with 12 points and 13 rebounds but it looks like the Lakers will have to go into the play-offs without home court advantage all the way through since the Cavs don’t feel like losing any time soon.

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In the Western Conference where the battle for seeds are still ongoing, nearly every team has played 80 games, the one team that hasn’t are San Antonio, who for their 80th game of the season go to Sacramento to face the Kings.

In the last five games San Antonio have won the 3 easier game but have fallen when tested against harder opposition, namely Cleveland and Portland. In their last game on Friday they managed a win against the seemingly hapless Utah Jazz, 105-99, and tonight’s game will again be against an easier team. The Kings have lost 7 straight including a home loss to Golden State and a road loss to the Clippers (to lose to the Clippers you have to be bad!) Despite having only win 16 games all season the Kings have averaged more points then the Spurs, 100 to 96 respectively. This shows the different types of play each team employs. San Antonio are a grinding, defensive team where as Sacramento realise the only way they will beat teams is by outscoring them.

One stat that will hearten San Antonio is the fact that the Kings have given up 109 points a game this season, so maybe the Spurs will decide to break out and score triple figures for once. They might have to do this without Tim Duncan (who averages 15 points a game) who is questionable for tonight’s game. Likewise the Kings only have one injury worry, Kevin Martin (who’s now famous for scoring 50 points in a game a few weeks ago) their small guard is questionable for tonight’s game. Tip-off is at 9pm ET.

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7 games were played in the NBA on Saturday and a few shocks were had:

First up in Indiana the Pacers carried on their good end of season form by beating the Detroit Pistons, 106-102. This win took the Pacers to 9th spot in the Eastern Conference and even though they can’t make the play-offs they will be delighted that they’ve saved face after a season when at one point they were second bottom in the Eastern Conference. In this game Danny Granger came through with 24 points while Brandon Rush had 21.

In New Jersey the Nets improved to 33-47 after a good win against the Orlando Magic. The Nets won this one 103-93 after stopping Dwight Howard from his nearly inevitable double double. Howard only managed 7 points and 8 rebounds in 26 minutes and the rest of his team didn’t do much better. On the other side Vince Carter led New Jersey with 27 points and 9 assists while Brook Lopez had 13 points and 11 rebounds for a double double. With this loss Orlando are now not able to catch the Boston Celtics for 2nd seed in the East and so will have to play either Philadelphia, Miami or Chicago in 6th spot.

Phoenix aimed to end their disappointing season on a high and went a step towards that goal with a road win at Minnesota, 110-97. Phoenix, who dropped out of play-off contention last week had major help from their bench; Leandro Barbosa, Jared Dudley and Alando Tucker all came off the bench to score double figures for the Suns while Grant Hill led the starters with 19. Shaq also had a double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Chicago enabled Indiana to jump ahead of the Bobcats by beating them at the United Center, 113-106. A major part in their win was Ben Gordon who scored 39 points, shooting 13 of 25 from the field while Joakim Noah had a double double (11-10rebounds). This win also means Chicago have a chance at grabbing 6th spot from Philadelphia, a mean feat considering a month ago they were in 9th place.

There wasn’t a 23rd win for Oklahoma as they went down 115-98 in Milwaukee. Both teams are just playing out the rest of the season, Oklahoma never had anything to play for but Milwaukee blew their play-off chances after the All Star break, going on a terrible run which means they’ll probably end the season 4th from bottom in the East. In this game Richard Jefferson led the Bucks with 35 points while Luke Ridnour had 18 points and 8 assists to see the Bucks to an easy home victory.

Utah dropped to a new low when they lost to an injury ravaged Golden State at home, 118-108. Despite Corey Maggette, Jamal Crawford, Monta Ellis and Brandan Wright all not play the Warriors still managed to win in Salt Lake, where before the game the Jazz had only lost 7 times all season. They did this by limiting the Jazz to only 20 2nd quarter points while scoring 36 of their own to go into the half leading by 13, a lead they didn’t let go of. C.J Watson had 38 points and 9 assist while Rob Kurz came off the bench to score 21 points. Any Jazz fans watching last night would have been despairing at how their team are going to pose any threat to their play-off opponents if they cannot beat the Warriors, a team that had only won 7 away from home before the game. Utah are now a game behind 7th placed Dallas with 2 to play and if they aren’t able to catch them then it will be the Lakers in the first round.

Finally in Los Angeles the Trail Blazers beat the Clippers in a grinding, defensive performance, 87-72. As you can tell from the scoreline this wasn’t a free scoring game and with the game tied at 17 after the 1st quarter Portland ultimately won the game with a 2nd quarter performance where they outscored the Clips by 15 points to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. LaMarcus Aldridge had 21 points and 9 rebounds while Joel Przybilla had a double double (10-14rebounds). This win leaves Portland tied for 3rd place with Houston in the Western Conference with both teams having two to play.

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7 games are being played tonight and all eyes are on the Jazz’ game at home to Golden State in Salt Lake City. The Jazz have only lost 7 games at home all season, the same number of games Golden State have won away from home, but after a bad loss at Dallas and then another loss at San Antonio Utah gave up the 7th seed that it’d held onto for so long. They’ll be aiming to get it back tonight though and could dearly use a win after dropping 4 of their last 5 including a home loss to Minnesota.

This will be the perfect opportunity for them then as the Warriors have a shed load of injuries. Monta Ellis is definitely out along with Corey Maggette while Jamal Crawford and Andris Biedrins are both questionable for tonight’s game. They may not be a better time to face Golden State, who will surely be fielding a make shift squad for a team that’s already looking towards next season. The Jazz have no injuries to speak of so will hope for solid performances all round to avoid becoming Golden State’s 8th win on the road. Tip-off’s at 9pm ET.

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