Friday's Best NBA Bet
Rookies vs. Sophomores (-11.5, 245)
There’s nothing like some high-flying, youthful legs to kickoff the NBA All-Star Weekend in Dallas.
It’s going to be hard for someone to top Kevin Durant’s 46 points in last year’s Rookie Challenge but there will no doubt be some fireworks. The average total in this game over the last three years is more than 250 points per shootout.
Obviously the second-year players have a decisive advantage with most having played in this game last season and a year of league experience under their belts.
Not coincidentally, the Sophomores have won seven consecutive games in this event and since the format of the game changed in 2000 (used to be all rookies), the Sophs are 8-2 straight up.
Derrick Rose has elected to sit the game out in order to rest but his replacement, Anthony Morrow, is no slouch. Morrow quietly led the NBA in 3-point percentage during his rookie campaign and ranks fifth among league leaders in that category heading into the weekend.
The frontrunner in the Rookie of the Year race, Tyreke Evans, said after the Kings win over Detroit on Wednesday that he was exhausted from the road trip. This could equate to shortened minutes for the point guard out of Memphis who is the Rookie team's best player.
A final note is that the Sophomores will have a decisive rebounding edge over the Rooks. Only Jonas Jerebko reaches the 6-10 height on the freshman team while the second-year squad has two players at that size as well as a pair of 7-footers.
Pick: Sophomores