Welcome back, NBA bettors, to another Gambling Guru column. It’s been an interesting start to the season with road dogs dominating in November, and as expected more home teams are starting to win now as the grind of the season starts to take it’s toll. On a personal note I’ve found the lines overall to be pretty stable. The bookmakers have nailed most of the national TV games, which is a good lesson for you all out there, try and grab the
Jabari Parker and Julius Randle have several things in common. Both were lottery picks in the 2014 NBA draft – Parker going second to the Milwaukee Bucks, Randle going seventh to the Los Angeles Lakers. Both were one-and-done college stars from powerhouse programs – Parker from Duke, Randle from Kentucky. Both were supposed to be among the legitimate contenders for Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, both suffered serious injuries that ended their rookie seasons shortly after they began and put them on
PHILADELPHIA – For nearly five decades, Jerry Colangelo has been pro basketball’s version of Annie Sullivan: a miracle worker. No, he never taught a blind and deaf Helen Keller how to “read.” But he did take over the expansion Phoenix Suns in the late 1960s and build them into a legitimate NBA power, twice winning the Western Conference and coming close to a championship with a team that was almost always respectable. That made him an institution in the Valley of the
Is the NBA inching toward parity? Or slowly sinking into mediocrity? Those may seem like strange questions during a season in which the Golden State Warriors have imposed their dominance over the rest of the league in unprecedented fashion. Yes, at 22-0 the Warriors have obliterated the best start in NBA history and have looked downright unbeatable while the clock was ticking during a vast majority of those 22 games. In that sense, they present a very strong argument against the notion
After winning the MVP last season and leading his Golden State Warriors to an NBA championship, Stephen Curry has been even better over the first quarter of this 2015-2016 season. Like a lot better, to the point where his offensive wizardry and shot-making mastery has become unfair to opposing defenses that are seemingly rendered helpless by his abilities. The Warriors are now 22-0 after blowing past the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday night, the best start to an American professional sports season after
We’re a quarter of the way through the regular season and the NBA landscape has shifted dramatically. Kobe Bryant is retiring after this season and wants to be remembered as a “talented overachiever” when it’s all said and done. Meanwhile, Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers (3-15) trail only the Philadelphia 76ers (1-19) for the league’s worst record. With every loss, the Lakers grow closer to keeping their top-three protected draft pick and potentially land top prospect Ben Simmons. On the flip side, the Golden
On Tuesday night, Kobe Bryant played his final game before his hometown crowd in Philadelphia. A rare sellout crowd at the Wells Fargo Center got everything it could’ve hoped for: a flurry of early threes from Bryant that touched off off a hard-fought game and ended in a standing ovation and a rare 76ers victory. The Philadelphia faithful – who had booed Bryant in many past visits – continued to chant “Ko-Be!” after the final buzzer sounded, praising him for a
It seems like the Houston Rockets are willing to try nearly anything to get out of their early-season funk. As we approach the quarter pole of the NBA season, Houston has already replaced its head coach and is trying numerous different lineup combinations. To put it nicely, things are still a work in progress for the Rockets. After needing overtime to defeat the Knicks, who were without Carmelo Anthony because of an illness, on Sunday, Houston stumbled to a 116-105 loss to