SportsBettingChamp.com Sports Blog

The second number one seeded team in the league has the chance to win their series tonight in Game 5. That team of course are the L.A Lakers, who despite losing one game to Utah in Salt Lake a few days ago recovered to take the second one and a 3-1 lead back into Los Angeles where they’re fully expected to win against a team that only won twice against teams over .500 on the road in the regular season. Despite having a good line up in Boozer, Williams and the like the Jazz just haven’t been able to shake off their terrible away form that cost them a shot at the 2nd seed in the West and in the end ensured they only had the lowest seed in the division despite having only lost 8 games at home all season.

On the other hand the Lakers will be looking forward to a short break before the Conference Semi-Finals where they’ll play either Dallas or San Antonio (more likely Dallas as they’re currently 3-1 up) in a mouth-watering tie. While they won’t want to go into tonight’s game with any complacency even they’ll know that the Jazz aren’t the best and the home fans at the Staples Center will be fully expecting Kobe Bryant and the team to put on a show worthy of the play-offs. Tip off is at 10.30ET.

As always, if you’re looking to bet on sports, head over to http//www.SportsBettingChamp.com for information on how to win 97% of your sports bets!

4 games were played in the NBA play-offs on Sunday night starting in Chicago where the Bulls refused to lay down against the Boston Celtics and eventually won in the second period of overtime 121-118 thanks to some late free throws to tie the series at 2-2. The Bulls might have won it late on but the first late dramatics were provided by Boston and Ray Allen in particular. Allen, who had won game 2 for the Celtics with a late 3 did exactly the same from 27-feet away from the basket to tie the game at 96-96 with only 9 seconds left in regular time. Chicago failed to convert their last possession of the quarter and the game went to OT.

Then in the first period of overtime the Bulls’ Ben Gordon (who had previously put up numbers of 36 and 42 in the first two games) hit a 25-foot tray with only 4 seconds to go when Chicago were down 107-110 to take the game into 2OT. Gordon had 22 points on the night and shot 10 of 22 from the field in 49 minutes. Then with less than 30 seconds on the clock in 2OT the Celtics’ Paul Pierce fouled John Salmons to send him to the line (the Celtics were over the limit at that point), Salmons hit both shots to make the game 119-115 but the aforementioned Pierce then brought Boston back within a point of Chicago with a 3 pointer to make the game 118-119. Boston had to foul and did so to Salmons again and he promptly put both shots away to re-establish the 3 point lead. The Celtics had one last chance to tie the game with 16 seconds on the clock, however when Pierce went for a 24-foot 3 at the buzzer Salmons completed his heroics by blocking the shot to the crowds delight as the
Bulls won 121-118 to tie the series at 2-2 going into the next game in Boston.

Derrick Rose led the Bulls with 23 points and had a double double with 11 rebounds to boot. Behind him was the previously mentioned Gordon and John Salmons, who scored 20 points in 47 minutes including all 9 of his foul shots. On the other side Paul Pierce had a big game scoring 29 including 3 shots from behind the arc, a total that was only eclipsed by Ray Allen who shot 5 of 11 from behind the arc for 15 of his 28 points. The Bulls are proving tougher than Boston expected but with home court advantage back in their favour they will still expect to get through albeit in 6 or 7 games.

In Detroit the Cavaliers completed their easy sweep of the Pistons with a 99-78 win in Game 4 to progress to the Conference Semi-Finals. Cleveland never looked in trouble in this game and were rarely behind, up by 9 at half time they coasted the rest of the way in the end winning by 21 points. LeBron James led the Cavs with 36 points and 13 rebounds for a double double while Mo Williams impressed with his 3 point shooting as he dropped 4 on his way to a 24 point game. Cleveland will now go onto face either Orlando or Philadelphia and in this form it’s hard to see them losing even a game let alone a series especially with home court advantage.

In the series that will decide who Cleveland plays in the next round the Orlando Magic wrestled home court advantage back from the Philadelphia 76ers in a game where every starter scored double figures. Orlando won this one 84-81 to tie the series at 2-2 with the next game in Orlando and their star performer was Dwight Howard, the towering center, who scored 18 points and 18 rebounds for a commanding double double while Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu (who hit the game winning 3) each dropped 17. On the other side Andre Miller led the Sixers with 17 points while Andre Iguodala had his own double double with 13 points and 11 assists. A special mention also goes to Willie Green who hit all 3 of his shots from behind the arc for 9 of his 11 points. Despite pulling off two good wins Philly haven’t been able to build on them and that leaves them with the task of having to go into Orlando again needing a victory with at least two games to go.

Finally in Houston the Rockets took a 3-1 lead over the Portland Trail Blazers in their second home game to take a two game lead into Portland and Game 5 with an 88-89 win. Talisman Yao Ming led the Rockets with 21 points and 12 rebounds for a double double while Luis Scola dropped 17 and Shane Battier hit 4 of 6 3-pointers for a large part of his 14 points. On the other side Brandon Roy top scored for the ‘Blazers with 31 while shooting 8 of 17 from the field while LaMarcus Aldridge scooped 19 with exactly the same shooting figures. Portland’s task looks a hard one now, having to make up two games on Houston when they’re in this form will be very difficult especially since they will have to go into Houston and get a win to stay alive in Game 6, they just haven’t been able to stop Ming in this series and it has cost them.

As always, if you’re looking to bet on sports, head over to http//www.SportsBettingChamp.com for information on how to win 97% of your sports bets!

After Utah’s late victory a couple of days ago in Salt Lake City the Jazz are hopeful of doing the same to the Lakers to level the series, a great achievement considering they were looking so down and out after the two games in Los Angeles. Doing this would put, at least, a little bit of pressure on the Lakers, something they haven’t had to cope with for a while. I say a little because the Jazz’ away form is so atrocious that even if they do win tonight to level up the series they still won’t pose that much of a threat to L.A, the team with the home court advantage.

However, hope springs eternal and to keep that hope alive they’ll need to win tonight and will need Carlos Boozer and co. to step up a la a couple of days ago. If they can take this series to Game 6 or 7 at least they can hold their heads high even if they do go out as expected. This could even have an effect on the Lakers, who I’m sure were expecting an easy 4-0 sweep that hasn’t materialised. However, if they can get the job done in 5 games they will still be relatively happy and to do this they’ll have to win tonight and will hope for a bigger night from Kobe Bryant, who was quite quiet in Game 3. Tip-off is at 9pm ET and the game’s on ESPN.

As always, if you’re looking to bet on sports, head over to http//www.SportsBettingChamp.com for information on how to win 97% of your sports bets!

There were 3 NBA play-off games played last night starting in Detroit where Cleveland took another step towards sweeping the Pistons after they won 79-68 at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Despite a bad 3rd quarter when the Cavaliers scored only 9 points LeBron and co. got through the game thanks to a 4th quarter when they outscored the Pistons 26-15 to win by 11. LeBron James led the Cavs with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists, just missing out on a triple double whilst shooting 9 for 19 from the field. Behind him Joe Smith came off the bench to make 6 of 8 of his field shots and 6 foul shots to score 19 and also grabbed 10 rebounds for a double double.

On the other side Rip Hamilton led the Pistons with a paltry 15 points while Rodney Stuckey was just behind with 12 as Cleveland shut out Detroit in a defensive game. With Detroit now just about out of the play-offs they’ll just hope to salvage some pride and win their last home game in a couple of days to avoid a 4-0 sweep.

In Philadelphia the 76ers took the lead once more in this series and kept their home court advantage with a 96-94 win over the Orlando Magic thanks to a strong first half that Orlando couldn’t come back from. The Sixers were up 11 points by half time and despite an good Orlando fight back they just couldn’t complete it and fell behind 2-1 in this series.  Philly won this one thanks to a Thaddeus Young lay up with only 2 seconds left on the clock but despite hitting the game winner Young had a quiet game, scoring only 6 points off of 3 of 7 shooting. The big scorers in the Philadelphia team were Andre Iguodala and Andre Miller who scored 29 and 24 respectively. The 76ers will be confident that they can replicate this success and take their next home game in the series to make it 3-1 and in a tie winning situation. I don’t think anyone could see them not winning 1 of 3 games after that.

On the other side Dwight Howard, Orlando’s towering centre led with 36 points and 11 rebounds for a double double while Rafer Alston scored 17 to help out but Orlando were always battling from behind in this game and their last lead was with 7 minutes to go in the 1st quarter when the score was 11-10, after that Philadelphia just sprinted away with it and this is now set to be an upset unless Dwight and co. can win the next game in Philly.

Finally in Houston the home team again won thanks to a strong first half as the Rockets beat Portland in Texas to take a 2-1 series lead. Houston were also ahead by 11 points at half time before the ‘Blazers tried to fight back, unfortunately they just couldn’t finish it and the final score was 86-83 in a game not dominated by one player. The highest scorers were Brandon Roy and Ron Artest, who both had 19 points but apart from that there wasn’t anything to write home about. This wasn’t a game with one superstar but more of a team performance from both sides, Shane Battier dropped 16 while Yao Ming had a quiet night with only 7 points and 13 rebounds.

On the other side Rudy Fernandez came off the bench to score 17 including 5 3-pointers while Steve Blake had a productive night at point guard as he drilled 16 points and 10 assists for a double double. The Trail Blazers won’t want to lose the next game in Houston which would see them on the brink of a play-off exit at the first hurdle especially since seeing how they ended the regular season it would be a massive disappointment.

As always, if you’re looking to bet on sports, head over to http//www.SportsBettingChamp.com for information on how to win 97% of your sports bets!

Another 3 games are being played today and while the Pistons get a chance to revive their hopes of a miracle after going 2-0 down after both games in Cleveland and the Trail Blazers try to reassert themselves after a shaky 1-1 start in their series against Houston the biggest game tonight is between Orlando and Philadelphia in Philly.

Once the ‘Sixers had won the first game in Orlando they gained the home court advantage and with the series tied at 1-1 they’ll hope that this can be put to their advantage. However that won’t be a large advantage as the Magic tied the Cavaliers and the Celtics for the best record on the road this season at 27-14, a record that was better than Philadelphia’s home record. Because of this and their convincing victory in game 2 on Wednesday they are being touted as favourites for tonight’s match up and will hope for a large performance from Dwight Howard, who was stifled in the first game and scored less than 20 points, a rare occurrence for him.

Orlando’s objective will be largely to win one of the two Philly home games, as soon as they do that then they have home court advantage back and it would be unlikely for the 76ers to win two games on the road against a team that were 32-9 at home in the regular season. Tip off is at 8pm ET and the game is on ESPN2.

As always, if you’re looking to bet on sports, head over to http//www.SportsBettingChamp.com for information on how to win 97% of your sports bets!

Three games were played in the first round of the NBA play-offs on Thursday night and there were a couple of shocks. First up in Chicago there was no shock as the Boston Celtic retook the lead in the series 2-1 thanks to a blow out win over the Bulls. The Celtics were up 22 points by halftime and just blew Chicago away to win 107-86, Paul Pierce led Boston with 24 points including 4 3-pointers while Rajon Rondo grabbed a double double with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

With home advantage now regained the Celtics will be confident that they can put this series to bed but no one would be surprised if Chicago won the next game in Chicago to take this series to a 6th game. To win in the next game though, they’ll want a bigger performance from their stars, Ben Gordon who had previously put up big numbers in first two games was shut out for only 15 points last night, shooting 5 of 13 from the field while Derrick Rose shot only 4 of 14 from the field for 9 points, a feeble total.

In Dallas the Mavericks bossed the San Antonio Spurs in game 3 of their series and won easily 88-67 in a fantastic display of defensive play. By the half San Antonio had only 30 points on the board and with less than 5 minutes gone in the 3rd quarter and Dallas up 62-36 coach Gregg Popovich called a timeout and benched all of his starters in what he described as a lost cause. The Spurs’ bench players weren’t much better and that all added up to a performance resulting in their fewest points in a play-off game ever with Tim Duncan scoring a career low post-season total of 4 points.

On the other side Dirk Nowitzki paced Dallas with 20 points and 7 rebounds while Josh Howard was a few behind with 17. The most galling stat of the night was the Spurs’ shooting, San Antonio shot just 32 percent from the field all night and missed 15 3-point attempts. Unless the Spurs can up their game then Dallas will be confident of another win at home that would see them take a 3-1 lead to San Antonio and maybe provide us with the first shock of this season’s play-offs. Conversely the rest that the San Antonio big guns gained at the end of last night’s game might prove handy next time round.

Finally the biggest shock of the night was provided in Salt Lake City as the Utah Jazz beat the L.A Lakers 88-86 to keep them alive in this series. The Jazz are still 2-1 down in the best of 7 but will be hopeful that they can call on their stellar home form to carry them to another win and maybe put some pressure on Los Angeles in their next home game. The Jazz won this one with a Deron Williams fadeaway jumper with only 2.2 seconds left, despite this shot falling it wasn’t really Williams’ night and he only scored 13 points from 3 of 7 field shooting. Thankfully Carlos Boozer carried a lot of the Utah load and top scored with 23 points and had an astonishing 22 rebounds for a heroic double double.

The Lakers won’t be pleased that they blew an 8 point lead in the 4th quarter but will still be encouraged by what they saw in Los Angeles; the fact that Utah can play on the road. They won’t want to get complacent however, and will want to make sure they win the next game in Utah so that they can wrap this one up early, the last thing they want is a long drawn out series that would tire their players.

As always, if you’re looking to bet on sports, head over to http//www.SportsBettingChamp.com for information on how to win 97% of your sports bets!

In tonight’s NBA play-offs the L.A Lakers can go a step closer to booking their place in the Conference Semi-Finals with a win over Utah in Salt Lake City. The Lakers took both of their home games to lead 2-0 and looked comfortable in both. The Jazz hope to give them a harder test at home though, where they’ve only lost 8 games all season and will need to win both of their two home games if they’re to have a any chance of pulling off a miracle as 8th seeds. They might have to face the Lakers without center Mehmet Okur who’s questionable to start tonight’s game and even if he does a full strength Jazz will still find it hard to beat Los Angeles who look a well oiled play-off machine with Kobe Bryant averaging 25 points a game and Pau Gasol 21. Utah will have to look for some sturdy defense to stop these two, something that they haven’t done all season. Utah gave up an average of 100 points a game in the regular season and looked to outscore their opponents a la Phoenix to win games but this plan has backfired whenever a team has matched their very good offense and the Lakers are a good bet to do this. The game starts at 10.30pm ET and the game’s on TNT.

As always, if you’re looking to bet on sports, head over to http//www.SportsBettingChamp.com for information on how to win 97% of your sports bets!

3 games are being played tonight and the middle one is Miami @ Atlanta. The Hawks lead this series 1-0 after winning 90-64 on Sunday night and holding the Heat to their lowest points total of the season. Mostly this was done by stifling Dwayne Wade with double teams that meant he missed open shots, in fact Wade only shot 8 of 21 from the field for 19 points, way below his average of around 27 points.

Atlanta will want to see the same kind of defensive performance if they’re to win their second home game in the series. If that happened then they would be in a commanding position going into the games in Miami where in the regular season the Heat lost 13 times. They may well have to play without a full strength Acie Law though who’s questionable for tonight’s game while Mario Chalmers is the same for the team from Florida. Tip-off is at 8pm ET and the game’s on TNT.

As always, if you’re looking to bet on sports, head over to http//www.SportsBettingChamp.com for information on how to win 97% of your sports bets!

3 play-off games were played on Tuesday night and all went to the home teams. First in Cleveland the Cavaliers made it 2-0 in their series with Detroit, the 8th seed, despite a late Pistons rally, 94-82. LeBron James led the Cavs (surprise surprise) with 29 points and also grabbed 13 rebounds for a double double while Delonte West dropped 20 in an increasingly slick looking Cleveland play-off machine. If they do manage to sweep the Pistons in 4 games the Eastern Conference will be scared. The Cavs were up by 31 points at the start of the 4th quarter before said Detroit come back which cut the deficit back to 12 points but at Quicken Loans Arena it was too little, too late for the Pistons to complete the fight back in a game where they’d been trounced for the most part.

In Portland the Trail Blazers levelled their series with Houston 1-1 after a much improved performance on the first game. In the first game the Rockets had a field day and beat the ‘Blazers 108-81 with Yao Ming shooting 100 percent for 24 points, however Portland sensed that if Ming was given another easy game they would be on the brink of play-off elimination and tightened up. Ming only shot 6 shots from the field and only made 3 for 11 points all game while on the other end Brandon Roy exploded for 42 points while LaMarcus Aldridge dropped 27 points and 12 rebounds for a double double. With the series now going into Houston for two games Portland will hope to take one of the two games to give themselves home court advantage once more and will hope for another big performance from their star small guard, Roy, to achieve that.

Finally in Los Angeles the Lakers comfortably beat the Utah Jazz 119-109 to take a 2-0 lead going into the 2 games in Utah. With the momentum firmly in Los Angeles’ favour the task set for Utah is a massive one, having failed to come anywhere near a win in Los Angeles they’ll need to win their two home games to have any chance of staving off elimination for a few days at least. In this game Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 26 points and 9 assists while Pau Gasol had 22 points. Lamar Odom came off the bench to drop 19 in a game when, despite the scoreline being close at times, the Lakers never looked like losing.

As always, if you’re looking to bet on sports, head over to http//www.SportsBettingChamp.com for information on how to win 97% of your sports bets!

3 games are being played tonight and while the early game will likely be predictable (the Pistons @ Cavaliers) and the same goes for the late game (Utah @ Lakers) the middle game in the mid-West will likely be more interesting. The Houston Rockets stay in Portland for the second home game of four for the Blazers and with the Rockets already having taken 1 Portland will be going all out to ensure that they don’t go into Houston with a large deficit and the need for 7 games. To do this they’ll look to stop Yao Ming, Houston’s towering centre after their first effort failed on Saturday night. Ming hit all of his shots from the field (9) for 24 points and 9 rebounds on the way to a 108-81 victory.

Not only do they have to contend with Ming but the Rockets are at full strength so that means Artest, Scola and Aaron Brooks, who led the Rockets on Saturday with 27 points and 7 assists. With Greg Oden also possibly out the ‘Blazers will need to play some serious defensive to avoid staring a quick series defeat in the face. Tip off is at 10pm ET and the game’s on NBA TV.

As always, if you’re looking to bet on sports, head over to http//www.SportsBettingChamp.com for information on how to win 97% of your sports bets!