What Bettors Need To Know: NBA All-Star Game
By PATRICK GARBIN
On Valentine’s Day, the East and West tip off in the NBA’s 59th All-Star Game. Although the West has had the upper hand recently, the East holds a 35-23 advantage in the series.
The game, known for its high scores and lack of defensive play, will be held in Arlington’s Cowboy Stadium. The new venue is expected to attract more than 90,000 fans this Sunday, which would easily eclipse NBA attendance records for a single game.
An exhibition
Most professional gamblers don’t touch this game since it is usually not taken very seriously and treated by most of its participants as an exhibition, especially when compared to the all-star games of other professional sports.
The game’s line is solely set on public perception and not on the players’ on-court performance.
"Typically (the NBA All-Star Game) is a coin flip game,” said Rob Gillespie, President of Bodog. "(Setting the line) has a lot to do with public opinion…We will try and gauge where the public will be and keep the bets small to start.”
Value could be found in the total since the game is normally a high-scoring affair (see second “trend” below). However, a problem with betting the over is the total is usually high and the public is more often than not wagering on it rather than the under.
Size matters
A popular viewpoint on why the West has the edge in recent All-Star Games is its superiority in height over the East.
The size advantage for the West was certainly evident in last year’s meeting. The East had a difficult time in matching up and was blown out, 146-119.
The lopsided size difference is somewhat evident again for this year’s game. The West’s roster has seven of its 12 players at 6-foot-9 or taller while the East has just five players at that height.
Kobe’s out
It was announced Thursday night Kobe Bryant, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, would not play in Sunday’s game because of an ankle injury. Along with Chris Paul and Brandon Roy, Bryant is the third West player missing the game due to injury.
The East’s Allen Iverson also won’t play because one of his children is ill.
Kobe’s injury does give the game more hometown flavor. Dallas’ Jason Kidd replaces Bryant while Dirk Nowitzki, another Mavericks player, could now move into the starting lineup.
“Dirk's presence in the starting lineup should certainly help stir up some local buzz for an event that's going to need plenty of it with the weather wreaking havoc on the travel plans of everyone trying to attend,” said Sekou Smith of NBA.com.
Trends
The West has won five of the last eight meetings over the East since 2002. The West’s average margin of victory during that time is by 15.4 points while the East’s winning average is by only six points.
In the last seven All-Star Games, the total has averaged 266 points with five of the seven games totaling 262 points or more.
This season, Western Conference teams are 166-131 SU (56 percent) against the Eastern Conference and seven of the NBA’s top 10 ATS teams are in the West (Oklahoma City, Utah, Golden State, Portland, Memphis, Phoenix, and Minnesota).