NBA Picks, Monday

[sani]

Houston over Utah (+5) @ 1.95 (www.easybets.com) First of all: McGrady is questionable again, so make sure you check if he plays or not. And i think Houston has what it takes tonight even without him, but just check that later in the day. Houston did play last night, so this will be second game in two days, and it is away from home, BUT they are 6-5 on second games of back-to-back, when game 2 is away from home. The whole world saw Rockets get blown away yesterday by Duncan-less Spurs. That had to hurt them. And this is how bad they actually were. Ten players played for Houston yesterday, and only three surpassed their season average: Mcgrady (26 compared to 25.2), Weatherspoon (4 compared to 2.6) and Scott Padgett (5 compared to 3.7). And just mentioning these last two in a preview is something i thought i'd never do. So, Mystikal's 'Bouncin' Back' should be in all of their iPods today, and rightfully so. They can't be any worse than they were in 4th quarter yesterday. And how about Utah? No AK-47, no Lopez and no Boozer for Jazz. Yes, Jerry Sloan can get 'the others' to play hard on any given night, he could make Tractor Traylor lose weight if he wanted to, that's how good he is as a leader and motivator. But a bunch of guys named Harpring, Humphries, Bell, Borchardt, Okur just want do against Houston. Key factor: Rockets absolutely HAVE TO bounce back, they still dream of No 4 in West, and they just don't want to drop back to No 7, with Memphis being so close they have to play hard rest of the way to avoid it. Philadelphia over Sacramento (-5) @ 1.95 (www.easybets.com) Emotional games are always hard to play, and almost every one of those is close. No matter who plays, 5 point spread is too much when emotions are a factor. And after the dust has settled on 'the trade' (near) future is bright for Sixers, once again. They won 5 of their last 6 after losing 5 of first 9 with C-Webb, and they finally got Webber and Iverson clicking. Another thing worth a mention, their only loss in last six was WITHOUT Webber in the lineup. If Iverson can play as bad as he did in first 3 quarters yesterday against LA Fakers, i'll be more than surprised. Their rivals tonight, Sacramento Kings, are one big question mark at this point. No interior presence can only hurt you if you're playing Allen Iverson, as he should feel more comfortable taking it to the hoop. I also like the fact Ostertag is getting minutes, it should help Iverson get a couple of 'and-ones' tonight. Like i mentioned a couple days ago, when Bibby hits a winner he's all over the news, but when he goes cold, or when he takes 10 idiotic shots nobody says a word. I just think that's weird, but with Adelman's 'i'll just watch it from the sidelines scratching my beard' attitude it's not that much of a surprise. Well, 'mr Big Time' has hit a major slump, going 33% from the field in last six games. Stojakovic did wake up, scoring 38 and 28 in last two games, but he's just not consistant enough, not this season. Winner in this one is almost impossible to call, but i expect it to be very close. Key factor: For the first time in last 9 years, Allen Iverson is not the man everybody's talking about in a Sixers game. He won't mind that tonight, and he knows how important this game is for Chris Webber's confidence, AI will do anything to get a win tonight.

[TazaD]

Re: NBA Picks, Monday Good luck today sani. Nothing stood out for me today, all the lines seems pretty tight....In fact the only game I was really considering was NJ -4. Push. I sure hope no-one was on Orlando -8 tho! Atlanta finished on a 13-2 run...7-0 in last 44 seconds. You'd be fairly upset with that!