Cleveland @ San Antonio (+1.5) - No Ben Wallace, 2nd of a back-to-back, and on the road. Cleveland will lose to San Antonio, no question.
Oklahoma City (+10) @ Dallas - Oklahoma City is 3rd overall ATS at 34-22. Dallas is under .500 ATS, at 27-30. Oklahoma City may lose but will stick with the Mavs' and will surely cover.
Those are my first two 'easy' picks for the NBA; I will continue to do this for the rest of the season and post my record at the bottom of each post.
Current Record: 0-0-0
It's getting to that point in the year when college basketball really gets intense. Conference tournaments and then the Big Dance; what could be better? Great game after great game will take place, but well you pick them all correctly? If not, what is lacking in your decision making? Assuming you are doing adequate research before locking in a pick, you may be overlooking some underlying factors. Home court advantage is a much greater factor in college sports than professional, and this should be compensated for. For example: February 24, unranked Boston College hosted 25th ranked Florida State, yet Boston College was favored 2.5. To the untrained eye, this could seem a sure lock for Florida State; they are ranked as opposed to unranked, are higher in the conference standings, and have the bigger household name. Yet BC is 'on the bubble' and Florida State is probably a shoo-in for the tourny, making BC's need to win the game that much greater. Also, never underestimate a senior leader such as Tyrese Rice, BC's point guard. Senior players are a rarity these days, escpecially really good ones. They often provide extra leadership in late game situations and take their time to a victory. This was the case here as well, Rice leading BC to a 72-67 victory and covering their spread.
Some advice for the upcoming weeks in betting: Follow the seniors. Seniors this year are more important than ever. Deep in conference tournaments and in the Big Dance, look for senior-laden teams or if not, teams with a senior leader, to excel. Teams such as Marquette with their veteran backcourt and North Carolina with senior leader Tyler Hansborough should fare extremely well this March. Other teams(players) to keep an eye on: UCLA and senior guard Darren Collison, UCONN and senior guard AJ Price and senior banger Jeff Adrien, Lousville with senior leader Terrence Williams, and Pittsburgh with senior leaders Levance Fields and Sam Young. Not only are all these good teams with good players, they seniors have been to the tournament before, provided necessary and valuable experience to their entire team. Sort of the same thing as an NBA veteren with playoff experience, you think?
Follow those seniors, keep your picks unbiased, and let the picks take you to the promised land (aka the bank).
Best of Luck,
New Blogger and Basketball Analyst Brian Alisch
email: brianalisch@yahoo.com // email me with anything of concern; also looking for sports writing job if any help there--thanks!!!
(first blog for the record)