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NBA 11/16-11/18

The NBA action continues this weekend with a full schedule on both Friday and Saturday

2007-11-19

The NBA action continues this weekend with a full schedule on both Friday and Saturday, and four games on Sunday. On Friday, the ESPN feature games will showcase Rockets/Spurs and Pistons/Lakers. On Saturday, the Bulls and Clippers find their way to WGN, and on Sunday, the Celtics face their toughest game of the year in Orlando. Be sure to keep up with all of the NBA action this weekend by visiting the Live Odds, Team Stats, and Instant Action Pages on Sportsbook.com! In the meantime, here’s a closer look and prediction for a game each day on this weekend’s board.

* 11/16/07 - (721) DETROIT at (722) LA LAKERS
Detroit will be playing the fourth leg in its five game west coast road swing. Having already won the first, I would expect the Pistons to go into L.A. Friday night at either 2-1 or 3-0 on the trip. Either way, the Lakers figure to pose the biggest challenge, since they have fared well as a home underdog under Phil Jackson, going 16-10 ATS, and have started the season well, scoring the basketball at a clip of 108.4 PPG over their first five. DETROIT is 5-15 ATS (-11.5 Units) in road games when playing against a good team (Win Pct. 60-70%) over the last 3 seasons. While the Lakers won’t actually be in that winning percentage range when the game tips-off, it’s still safe enough to categorize them as a “good team”. Coming off the Texas two-step, they’ll be anxious to get back in front of the home folks as well. Suggested play: LA Lakers +2

* 11/17/07 - (507) MIAMI at (508) NEW JERSEY
Miami broke its monumental losing streak this past Sunday in New York, and as a bettor, you’d have to figure the best is yet to come for this veteran team since the return of Dwyane Wade is imminent. Perhaps it can come in this Saturday tilt with Eastern Conference pretender…oops, contender, New Jersey. The Nets were off to a 4-2 start in their first six games, but boasted a StatFox Outplay Factor Rating of -6.2, ranking in the bottom quarter of the league at that time. Miami’s meanwhile, was -3.7, indicating that on a neutral court, the Heat would be favored by 2.5 points. With this one in New Jersey, the Nets figure to be a mid-range favorite. That’s too much of an adjustment from reality. With MIAMI is 31-17 ATS as an underdog over the last 2 seasons, I’ll look for them to beat the number here and potentially win outright. Suggested play: Miami +6

* 11/18/07 - (703) BOSTON at (704) ORLANDO
There’s a good chance Boston will go into its Sunday evening contest in Orlando still undefeated. This could be the height of the public’s perception of the Celtics, and if you’ve read my work in the Platinum Sheet enough this season, or have kept track of the Sportsbook.com betting trends pages, you know how much I love fading public sentiment. So far in ’07, much like every other season I’ve watched NBA betting, the public has fallen for the road favorite. They surely will here. The only problem is that there is a pretty good team on the other bench in the Magic, who were scoring 102.7 PPG while holding opponents to 43.4% field goal shooting in their first six. That’s a pretty strong combination for what is shaping up to be a bona fide East contender. Suggested play: Orlando +4.5

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