The Super Bowl will drown out most other sports betting action this weekend, but that doesn't mean there aren't some good things going down in the NBA before Sunday's big football game.
Saturday Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers are in New Orleans to take on the Hornets (8 pm Eastern); the Memphis Grizzlies, who have recently inserted themselves into the Western Conference playoff picture, hit Houston to play the Rockets (8:30 pm Eastern); in a Northwest Division showdown the first-place Oklahoma City Thunder visit the third-place Utah Jazz (9 pm Eastern); and the Central Division-leading Chicago Bulls are on the west coast to tangle with Monta Ellis and the Golden State Warriors (10:30 pm Eastern, WGN).
For Sunday's warmup to the Super Bowl Blake Griffin and his Los Angeles Clippers hit South Beach to play LeBron James and the Heat (noon Eastern); the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers meet on the back end of a weekend home-and-home at MSG (noon Eastern); and the Boston Celtics, still the top team in the East, host the Orlando Magic (2:30 pm Eastern, ABC).
The Lakers got beat at the buzzer Thursday night by San Antonio, and have lost five of their last nine games to fall 7.5 games back of the first-place Spurs in the Western Conference. And their recent skid includes losses to the Clippers and the Kings.
New Orleans, meanwhile, has followed up a 10-game winning streak by losing three of its last four. So the Hornets, the current five seed in the West, are 2.5 games out of the four spot.
On a side note, the Lakers and Hornets are a combined 37-64 on the OVER/UNDER this season.
Memphis has been awful kind to its financial backers this season, going 31-18 vs. the BetJamaica.com numbers. The Grizz have also won four in a row (without O.J. Mayo) and seven of their last eight to climb over the .500 mark and into the nine spot in the West. They now trail the eighth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers by just a half-game.
The Bulls are 28-18 vs. the
BetJamaica.com pointspreads this season, and own the biggest division lead in the league, 14 games over second-place Indiana. And with a six-game winning streak Chicago now sits just a half-game back of second-place Miami in the East, and three games behind Boston.
And something's got to give in the Knicks-Sixers game, because they've been two of the best teams in the league this season to bet on. Going into their matchup Friday night in Philly the Sixers are 31-16 vs. the pointspreads this season, while the Knickerbockers are 29-17 ATS.