Sports Bets: Picks of the Day

Howdy sports fans. As a new installment here at ATA, I will be giving you sports gamble-holics (that means you Andy Shin) a handful of picks a few times a week, in either the NBA, NFL, or NCAA football. After each pick, I will label the pick with 1-5 stars, representing how strong of a pick this is. I will also keep a running tally of my wins and losses, thus giving you an idea of my credibility (or luck) as a sports analyst.

For those of you who are new to the sports betting world, I will give you a brief introduction to some of the terms. Anytime you see a plus or minus single or double digit number, this denotes the spread. The plus indicates underdog, the minus indicates favorite. For example, if you see -9 next to the San Antonio Spurs and a +9 next to the Los Angeles Lakers, you know that the Spurs are nine point favorites and the Lakers are nine point underdogs (likely because of crooked refs). When you are looking to bet on a team straight up, you look at the money line, which will again show a plus and a minus number, both indicating the same things as before. But unlike the spread, the money line shows you exactly how much your money will earn you. For underdogs, if you see +300, this means that every $100 that you bet, you will win $300 (if your underdog comes through, of course). For favorites, if you see -450, this means that you must wager $450 in order to win $100. Finally, the over/under aspect simply refers to the point total of the game. Pretty simple stuff.

1/16/09 NBA Games

1. New York Knicks (+2) @ Washington Wizards (-2). Coming off a 128-122 shootout at the Garden, New York now travels to Washington for a rematch. How were the lowly Wizards able to keep last night's game so close? By shooting 60% from the field, and 71% from 3. Nick Young dropped 33 points in 33 minutes and missed four shots out of a combined 24 shot attempts. Who wants to bet that this won't happen again? Sure the Knicks shot 54% and 54%, respectively, themselves, but NY is naturally a much more prolific three-point shooting team. Forget the fact that Washington's at home; the Knicks will still force their fast-tempo high-scoring style on the Wizards. For those of you who prefer statistics, here's one: Washington is 1-9 in games when the point total is >210. Last night, 250 points were scored. Good luck, Washington. Knicks straight up. ****

2. Milwaukee Bucks (-2) @ Sacramento Kings (+2). Ah, here's what we look for as sports bettors. Deviations from the norm that influence Las Vegas to release skewed lines and spreads. The Kings are absolutely terrible. Sure Kevin Martin has been injured all season, but they're still only 3-6 since his return, and one of those wins was against the Clippers (which shouldn't even count), so we'll say 2-6. What do I mean by deviation from the norm? I mean scoring 135 points when you only average 98. I mean managing to keep up with the high-flying Warriors for seven periods. I mean Brad Miller scoring 30 points and grabbing 22 rebounds (fantasy owners, you know exactly what I'm talking about). Milwaukee, on the other hand, is not a bad team. At 8-15 on the road, they have one more road win than Utah! Expect the Bucks to easily cover the generous 2 point spread that Vegas has gifted us this holiday season. ****

3. Orlando Magic (+4) @ Los Angeles Lakers (-4). Laker fans will curse me. Especially our very own Adriel Carolino, who, considering his immense sports knowledge, inexplicably believes that his beloved Lakers can do no wrong. Wake up Carolino, and world, the Lakers are not that good. Granted, Kobe is half-human half-god, but he is still half-human, which means he's not going to be able to bail out the Lakers with clutch baskets night after night. Who knows, maybe Bynum will actually be able to stick with Superman this time and stay in the game for more than 11 minutes? Maybe not. Magic straight up. ***

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The Bads' Goods

Bad News: Monta Ellis of the Golden States Warriors suffered a severe ankle sprain after some “off-season work outs” in Jackson. The team has questioned the actual source of Monta’s injuries, but however you look at it, the ensued surgery will require at least three months to recover from.

The Golden States Warriors are now in an absolute horrible position (i.e. having both legs tied behind your head with a train rapidly approaching as the Joker tortures your family). Their only legitimate point guard is the unproven Marcus Williams who will most likely fail at running the one full-time.

Good News: There is a chance that the Warriors will look into acquiring Shaun Livingston, the injury prone point guard formally of the Los Angeles Clippers. His stock is extremely low, his talent is really high, and I have this feeling that he might actually stay healthy this year. With Livingston, I expect the Warriors to be significantly more competitive in the West.

The Good's Bad: Shaun Livingston, if miraculously healthy, will not help the Warriors win too many extra games. Sorry GS, not your year.

Bad News: Manu Ginobli of the San Antonio Spurs will also require surgery to repair a ligament in his left ankle. The surgery will force Ginobli to be sidelined for 6-8 weeks and have him miss a few regular season games.

More Bad: Ginobli’s absence may require extended playing time from the increasingly ineffective Michael Finley. With the extended time, the 35 year old veteran will be at a higher risk of earning himself a handicap placard. Michael Finley. Handicap placard.

Good News: Manu plays on a solid Spurs team that can pick-up the slack for the 30 minutes-a-game bench player. The Spurs have Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, who will give opposing teams more than a handful already. The Spurs also have newcomer, Roger Mason, who will be eager to prove his worth after a breakout season with the Wizards.

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A Step Closer to the Championship

(Boredom awaiting the Celtics-Pistons game spawns this post)


A standing ovation with a mere 5-point lead and nearly 2 minutes to play left in the 4th is perhaps jumping the gun. I'll admit, as a cynic, maybe my Lakers faith was stalled a bit. I'll admit I was scared of the Spurs. But the Spurs never came closer after that. And it was goodbye to the defending champs.

Deep down, I knew the Lakers would go on to win this one. They had to. Spurs feeling confident with a 17-point lead? Not in our home! The Lakers wanted the win, and they wanted it bad. Even Farmar stepped it up last night and turned on his game, scoring 8 points, including 3 consecutive baskets. And who else better than Sasha to seal an already-made deal with a 3-pointer at the buzzer? (I am told that my bias would not be in effect if he was on the opposing team, I would hate his guts. I am also told that he made a lot of Lakers gamblers very happy, increasing the point spread to over 5. But I know nothing about this, so I'll stop here. I'll consider it a preview of what's more to come from The Machine. I'm telling you, one of these days he's going to hit a game-winning 3 in the playoffs.) Congratulations to the Lakers for winning the Western Conference championship and moving on to the finals in perhaps one of the toughest conferences yet! Can you believe that just earlier this year, Mr. MVP himself was demanding a trade? Though we must be careful what we wish for, let's hope for a Lakers-Celtics rivalry resurrection to top off this fairytale story! If Kobe is the modern-day Magic, then who is Larry Bird? Is it even fair to make this analogy?

Before I get ahead of myself, Boston has to step on the fingers of Detriot as they struggle to hold on. But if the Celtics continue to follow in their pattern of playoff games this season, we might expect another game 6 loss and third 7-game series for Boston. Stay tuned.

On an end note, as a follow-up to my previous Sasha-inspired post, did you happen to catch that smack to babyface by Ginobili?

Sasha should've ripped Manu a new bald spot. Personally, I think he needs new methods (besides growing his hair long) in his intimidation efforts. I vote for tattoos.

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Game 4: Final Moment

AP Photo


In game 4 of the Lakers-Spurs Western Conference Finals, the Lakers pulled out a victory by winning 93-91. However, with 2.1 seconds left to play, the San Antonio Spurs passed the ball into Brent Barry 30 feet straight away from the hoop. He put up a fake putting Derek Fisher into the air, on the way down he bumped into Brent Barry, who after receiving the contact, pivoted once and threw up a three pointer that stood no chance. After this contact, Brent Barry demanded for a foul call, he didn't get one.

Realistically, are NBA officials going to call that foul? No way. That alleged bump was extremely minimal and they are not going to determine the outcome of a game on such a touchy foul. Considering the pushing and shoving that occurs during inbound passes and the history of no-calls for buzzer beaters, this "foul" was actually, not a foul. It's not always right that the officials swallow their whistles at the end of games, but that's how it is. If you're going to win the game you're going to win it with a legitimate shot, not at the free throw line. But I wouldn't really expect Brent Barry to understand the difficulty of the buzzer beater, how many times has he really been put in that position? (And sorry Brent, 3 point shoot out doesn't count so you can c-walk your way back home)

And on another note, I am extremely disappointed in Derek Fisher's play throughout this series. He's been forcing impossible layups, taking irrational shots, and making bad defensive decisions. And on a last note, were you really trying to block Brent Barry?

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