Handicappers Picks

BetUS Sportsbook is back with another round of NBA Finals picks for Thursday night, as the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers duke it out for the fourth time in this best of seven series. The Lakers have to feel like an accomplished team after Tuesday night’s 91-84 victory, as they took a 2-1 series lead and guaranteed that, regardless of whether Boston wins both Games 4 and 5 or not, that the NBA championship will either be handed to them in Beantown, or the series will be going back to Tinseltown for at least a Game 6.
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Boston Celtics (63-39, 46-54-2 ATS) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (71-30, 44-54-3 ATS)
•Game Date/Time: Thursday, June 10th, 9:00 ET
•Game Location: TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA
•TV/Radio Broadcast: ABC, TSN, Sirius

NBA Finals Odds: Los Angeles Lakers +3.5 vs. Boston Celtics -3.5 – Game Total 190.5

HC Phil Jackson will tell you that his team still has a lot of work to do offensively if it hopes to win the NBA title. Shooting 44.7 percent from the field probably won’t cut it, but it’s hard to argue with the fact that G Kobe Bryant shot 10/29 from the floor. No, that’s not a fantastic percentage, but generally speaking, the more that Kobe shoots, the better off the Lakers are. Bryant scored 29 points, coming up just one shy of his sixth 30+ point performance in his L/7 games overall in Tuesday’s ‘W’. G Derek Fisher battled foul trouble all night, but his 6/12 shooting from the floor and 16 total points were a huge boost for a team that struggled at times offensively when its star wasn’t connecting from the field.

Game 3 may as well have been called “Disaster Piece Theatre” for G Ray Allen. The Connecticut Huskies standout only scored two points and failed to hit a shot from the floor. His 0/13 effort, eight of which came from downtown, really crushed the offensive flow of the game for the C’s all night long. F Paul Piece only scored 15 points, while G Rajon Rondo was held to 11. The star was F Kevin Garnett, who erased the memories of two awful games by shooting 11/16 from the field and scoring 25 points.

The team winning the rebounding battle is now 3-0 both SU and ATS in this series, as LA held that advantage 43-35 in Game 3.

NBA Finals Insider Tip: The Celtics are 7-3 ATS in their L/10 home games and are 10-4-1 ATS in their L/15 clashes with the Lakers overall.

Here’s some food for thought: Had Allen not gone 0/13 from the floor in Game 3, the Celtics would’ve shot 53.3 percent from the field. Odds have it, that won’t be the case again in Game 4, but odds have it, Allen will end up playing a game that is somewhere between the ridiculous Game 2 outing that he had in LA and the dismal one that he had in Game 3.

Also, the referees pretty much made it impossible for the Celtics to get into a rhythm after blowing the whistles on them what seemed to be almost every Lakers possession. With a new crop of zebras in the “Garden” for Game 4, I got a feeling some major make-up calls are certainly in the cards.

The Celtics are going to be desperate and fighting for their lives. Back the hosts for your NBA Finals picks as they tie this series up to set up a crucial Game 5.

My NBA Playoff Prediction: Boston by 8
Source: BetUS Locker Room Featured on: Handicapperspicks.com

In a series that had featured four blowouts, the Western Conference Finals certainly took a turn for the dramatic on Thursday night when F Ron Artest picked up an errant G Kobe Bryant shot and flushed it home at the buzzer to give the Los Angeles Lakers a 103-101 victory and a 3-2 series lead in the Western Conference Finals over the Phoenix Suns.

BetUS Sportsbook takes its shot at NBA playoff picks for the sixth game in this series, one that the Suns must win if they hope to keep their season alive.
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#1 Los Angeles Lakers (68-29, 41-53-3 ATS) vs. #3 Phoenix Suns (64-33, 59-37-1 ATS) •Game Date/Time: Saturday, May 29th, 9:00 ET •Game Location: US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ •TV/Radio Broadcast: TNT, Sirius

NBA Playoff Odds: Los Angeles Lakers +1.5 vs. Phoenix Suns -1.5: Game Total 216

Bryant may not have hit the game-winning shot, but he certainly has been the MVP of this series for HC Phil Jackson’s team. Bryant has now posted three straight games that came up just short of triple-doubles. He is averaging 33.0 points, 9.6 assists, and 7.4 rebounds per game in this series and is the man that seemingly always hits the big shot with hands in his face.

G Derek Fisher stepped up and gave him a ton of help in Game 5. The wily veteran scored 22 points and hit dagger after dagger that kept the Suns from going on that one huge run that could’ve taken away LA’s lead in a heartbeat.

For Phoenix, had the bench not had such a woeful first half, it probably would be up 3-2 in this series instead of down 3-2. Even though the relief men for HC Alvin Gentry ultimately scored 31 points, they only came up with one bucket in the first half.

C Channing Frye and F Jared Dudley both posted double digit efforts off of the bench in the defeat. Frye, who shot a woeful 1/20 from the floor in the first three games of this series went 4/10 and hit three triples to help bring the Suns back from a deficit that once reached 18 points.

G Steve Nash’s great game was wasted, as he shot 12/20 from the floor for 29 points to go with 11 assists against just two turnovers.

NBA Playoff Insider Tip: After getting blown out in Games 1 and 2, the Suns have suddenly covered three straight games against the Lakers in this series.

Common logic suggests that the Suns could just fall flat after suffering such an emotional defeat. However, we tend to believe that they are going to fight tooth and nail to keep this series alive and to send it back to LA.

Expect to see Phoenix throw the kitchen sink offensively at the Lakers, and the end result should be a ‘W’ for the hosts in what could be an incredibly high scoring affair.

Our NBA playoff picks are on the Suns to send this series back to Tinseltown.

My NBA Playoff Prediction: Phoenix by 3
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Los Angeles Lakers vs. San Antonio Spurs
Free Pick: Los Angeles Lakers +1 (March 24th 2010 – Big Al McMordie)
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At 9:30 pm, our complimentary selection is on the Los Angeles Lakers plus the point over San Antonio. The Spurs are playing their best basketball of this not-so-young season, so from coach Gregg Popovich’s perspective, it’s “better late than never.” They went into Oklahoma City on Monday and upset the Thunder, and that qualified as their biggest win of the year — even more than their 20-point blowout of the Lakers earlier this season. And that’s because San Antonio rebounded from a heartbreaking overtime loss at Philips Arena on Sunday, so they showed a lot of mettle in winning at OKC when playing on the road without rest. But even though the Spurs are finally playing well, they will be without Tony Parker tonight, and his quickness over Derek Fisher was one of the few, if any, matchup advantages the Spurs had over the Lakers. Surely, Duncan is, at best, a break-even proposition against Gasol. And San Antone has nobody who can guard either Lamar Odom or Kobe Bryant. The Lakers only “negative” in this game is that they might lack the requisite motivation, given they’re firmly locked into the #1 seed out west. But Los Angeles generally gets up to play the Spurs, and we’ll take L.A. as the small underdog here. Good luck, as always…Big Al McMordie.