2008 NBA Championship - With So Much Talent, Who Will Win?

For those who know me, it goes without saying that I am a huge Warriors fan. I bleed Blue and Yellow. And after the amazing late-season playoff run and heart breaking loss to the Jazz in the second round last year, I am ecstatic that the NBA season is finally upon us. It represents not only a chance for redemption, but also a chance to prove that last year was no fluke. Does that mean I think that the Warriors are good enough to win the championship this year? No. But, I will definitely have the time of my life watching them try. Ok, having given my shameless Warriors-for-life plug, I will now turn my focus to the teams that are more likely to win the championship.

West:

The wild, wild West is likely to live up to its name this year. There is just so much talent that any one of 6 or 7 teams could make it to NBA Finals.

1. San Antonio Spurs - This team may be a little old fashioned and boring to watch compared to some of the run and gun teams in the West, but with Parker, Duncan and Ginoblli all healthy, the Spurs are going to be tough.

2. Phoenix Suns - Coming off his second NBA MVP award in as many years, Steve Nash seems poised to orchestrate yet another deep playoff run. Maybe this year the Suns won't get cheated out of a Western Conference championship by Robert Horry's cheap shots.

3. Denver Nuggets - The return of Kenyon Martin will bolster this teams championship chances. With four all-star caliber players in the starting lineup, Melo and Co. are going to good. I just hope they can morph into the team they are capable of being.

4. Dallas Mavericks - The Mavs had a record year in 2006-2007, winning 67 games and losing a mere 15. So, the question is whether or not Dirk can live up to his potential, leave the kiddy pool and finally win - in the playoffs that is.

5. Houston Rockets - Two words - Yao and McGrady. If these two can stay healthy, the Rockets could potentially go all the way. They have a decent supporting cast. Now it is up to the stars to perform.

6. Utah Jazz - The Utah Jazz are a well balanced team. They play good defense and can score. With Boozer and Deron Williams becoming perennial all-star types, the Jazz may just be able to match last season's Western Conference Finals berth.

East:

The East is a different story. There are a large number of good teams, but only a few noteworthy teams that could possibly challenge the Western powerhouses for the title.

1. Detroit Pistons - The Pistons are talent and experience personified. They have a deep lineup with all of the makings of a championship team. True, Rasheed Wallace is aging a bit and did not play his best last year, but with Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton by his side, the Pistons are as good as anyone in either conference.

2. Boston Celtics - Can the Celtics get back to their winning tradition? If you think anything else, you are a complete buffoon. Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett are the most skilled trio in the league. All they have to do now is create a little team chemistry and they have NBA Finals written all over them.

3. Chicago Bulls - Ben Wallace, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, Kirk Hinrich, Andres Nocioni and Joakim Noah. Enough said. The Bulls are a deep, talented, young, dangerous team. And with rumors that Kobe Bryant may be making his way to Chicago, the Bulls have every chance in the world to win this year.

The NBA boasts a plethora of talented teams all of which could potentially win the championship. There is just so much talent in the league nowadays that the dynasties of old are all but dead and gone. My prediction is this: The NBA finals will feature two teams that are desperate to win championships; Steve Nash and the Suns against Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and the Celtics. Personally, I would love the see the Big Ticket finally get his due. But Nash with a fat championship ring on his finger wouldn't be a bad sight either. However, if I were a betting man, I would put money on the Suns to go all the way this year.

Nishan Wilde is VP of Sales at RobbinsSports.com, an online resource for Stopwatches, Portable Scoreboards and Punching Bags

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Sports Betting 101- How to Bet on NBA Basketball

Basketball can be one of the tougher sports to handicap for novices, most believe that teams will perform the same (good or bad) in each outing because there are no weather concerns like those that exist in football, while it is indeed true that each basketball contest takes place indoors, most fail to realize how hard it is to play a sting of back to back to back games and especially if travel is involved, in this article we will look at the various factors that must be considered when handicapping NBA hoops.

Certain principles hold true no matter what sport you are handicapping, for example, injuries play a key role in any sporting event but plays a much bigger role in the NBA because they only have five starters on the hardwood versus 22 total starters on an NFL team and also have much less depth on their overall roster, this means that you really need to know the injury situation and who the backup player is before making a wager on an NBA game.

Another consideration is where the game will be played, home court is a much larger factor in the NBA than in the NFL, this comes into play when the home team is listed as the doggie and the visiting team has injuries or is in the midst of a three game or more road trip, keep in mind that road weary teams have tired legs and tired legs lose games in the final minutes.

The NBA is similar to the NFL in that fans also double as gamblers, this means that certain teams have a public following that will place wagers on them no matter what the posted point spread is, usually this can be exploited when this public team is playing at home and laying a bushel full of points to a divisional rival.

Always remember to "Line shop" for the best possible number on your team of choice in order to better enhance your chances of a winning wager, also, beware of laying the hook with road favorites and especially when key numbers are involved, a key number in the NBA is defined as any number which is a multiple of two, the reason why of course is because a basket is worth two points.

Never forget that a winning gambler is a hard working gambler, its best to stay one step ahead of the betting public by being more prepared than they are, this means that you need to know about bad scheduling situations, team chemistry problems, and injury concerns before the public, the information is readily available to everyone but its really an issue of who will go the extra mile by doing the research.

Over the past 35 yrs plus, Jim Campbell has been on both sides of the Sports Investment Business, as a entrepreneur that ran his own business, to building and maintaining a private clientele base that greatly benefits from his superior handicapping expertise in the sporting arena.

Jim Campbell runs http://www.FootballForecastor.com which has been an internet based sports handicapping service since 1997, you will be hard pressed to find another handicapper that has had the kind of success Jim has had, over the past eight years he has maintained one of the very best winning percentages of any sports handicapping service.

Jim Campbell finished the final four weeks of the 2005 NFL regular season with a mark of 14-5-2 ATS coming down the stretch for a winning rate of 73.68% and for the season in the NFL he finished with an overall mark of 48-33-4 ATS for a winning rate of 59.26% and that includes a perfect mark of 7-0 ATS in the NFL Playoffs, Jim has posted a mark of 6-2 ATS over the past EIGHT years with his Super Bowl selections.

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NBA Point Spread Handicapping Season Preview

Well the 2007-2008 NBA season is almost upon us and our professional NBA handicappers are putting the final touches on our dozens of winning handicapping game scenarios and trends. We are now in our tenth year of supplying winning NBA picks and analysis that has enabled us to collect a cumulative winning percentage in that time period of nearly 60 percent. Each day of the season, we analyze every game on the schedule and supply 3 BEST BETS/STRONG PLAYS for that day that we release to our paid customers. We also like to supply a free NBA pick for the day. Most of our subscribers sign up for the season package where we send out these picks to them each day for the entire regular season and playoffs. Thats comes out to hundreds of picks for the year for a very generous price.

One of the trends that we like to supply that we will go into as a bonus is the home underdog scenario. This is a very big money-making situation and it goes like this. Teams that are home underdogs or in other words getting points on their home court usually are strong bets for a number of reasons. The primary reason is that teams find it very insulting to be deemed not worthy of having the favorite's role at home. They become angry and very determined to play a very tough game in order to "show the oddsmakers" that they should be given more respect and thus not be deemed the weaker team on their home court. They then come out and play well and more often that not, wind up covering. This trends has come in at around 61 percent successfully over the 10 year period we have been doing this and we will once again key in on those home underdog games that will be money makers.

Now of course every trend has its shortcomings and we don't select every game that falls under this category. We look for other indicators and giveaways that further solidify our hunch of who is the better angle to select. We will be following this trend and much, much more all season long and we look forward to having our tenth year of success. Good luck.

Cofounder of http://www.yourwinningpicks.com/ in our tenth year of supplying sports handicapping and fantasy sports information.

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