Sunday's Best NBA Bets
New Orleans Hornets at Los Angeles Lakers (-8.5, 189)
Hornets guard Chris Paul is desperate to get some help for his team’s suddenly thin frontcourt.
“You know when you lose somebody like David West its devastating because that’s our guy,” He said. “He’s our go-to guy. We’re praying for him and he’s going to be alright.”
Sure, he will be alright. Just not for about eight months. In the meantime it will be up to Carl Landry to fill in for the veteran scorer. Landry is averaging 11.4 points and 4.4 rebounds this season – both well below his career averages. In his first start against the defensive-indifferent Suns, he did net 19 points with six rebounds, but it was just the first time in two weeks he cracked double figures in scoring.
And the Lakers can’t wait to take advantage.
Los Angeles is 3-0 SU and 2-1 ATS this season against the Hornets. In the team’s past 10 games, it is 9-1 SU.
Landry will likely have to defend Ron Artest, and that could be a tough assignment. The mercurial Artest has scored in double digits in three straight and is playing his best ball of the season.
Landry also could get switched down low onto 7-footer Pau Gasol, but that would create a huge disadvantage for the Hornets.
Pick: Los Angeles
Boston Celtics at Minnesota Timberwolves (NA)
Expect this to be one of the least entertaining games on the slate. Well, unless you like turnovers, slow play and lots of missed jumpers.
Minnesota could be without both Michael Beasley and Kevin Love due to injuries, though Love was upgraded to questionable on Saturday. Far and away the team’s top two players, the duo combine to average more than 41 points and 21 rebounds. Beasley has an outside shot to play, but will be nursing a lingering hip injury. Overall, he has failed to meet his scoring average in five of the team’s past six games.
Meantime, Boston continues to be a lock to fade down the stretch. Despite getting solid play from recently acquired Jeff Green, the team has failed to regain its intensity after the trade of center Kendrick Perkins.
The Celtics are 4-6 SU and ATS over their past 10 games and haven’t cracked the century mark in points since a home loss to the lowly Clippers on March 9. Since that defeat, the team has seen nine straight games hit the under.
“You can see it,’’ Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “A guy struggles, he pouts, he moans. Everything is ‘Me, me, me’ on our team right now.’’
Pick: Under
NBA Betting Preview: Miami Heat host Rockets
By: Willie Bee
These are nervous, desperate times in the NBA as teams jockey for playoff seeding or try to drive their way into the postseason with a late push in the win column. Two teams doing just that meet in Miami on Sunday when the Heat host the Houston Rockets.
The interconference battle at AmericanAirlines Arena tips a little past 3:00 p.m. (PT) with local television coverage provided for the folks in South Beach and back in the Bayou City.
Houston comes into the matchup after finishing a six-game homestand with five consecutive victories. The Rockets (38-34 straight up, 36-35 against the spread) have enjoyed a few days off since Wednesday's 131-112 romp over the Golden State Warriors, Houston's high-water mark on the scoreboard this season.
Handed 8½-point chalk by the oddsmakers, the Rockets were led by Kevin Martin's 34 points and Chuck Hayes' first career triple-double. The sixth-year center out of Kentucky scored 13 points, dished 11 assists and grabbed 14 boards in the win.
It was Houston's 12th win in its last 15 games to bring the club within 1½-games of Memphis in the Western Conference standings for the eighth and final spot in the playoffs.
Rockets backers got paid for the third time in four games and 10th time during the 15-game stretch that started with a 108-100 win at Detroit on Feb. 22. Wednesday's contest jumped the 216½-point total with more than six minutes remaining in the final quarter, the second consecutive 'over' for the Rockets and fifth in their last eight trips to the floor.
Miami extended its win streak to four straight and reached the 50-win plateau Friday night with a 111-99 triumph at home versus Philadelphia who was getting eight from the oddsmakers. The Heat (50-22 SU, 33-37-2 ATS) trailed by as many as 16 in the first half and entered the fourth quarter down by five before Dwyane Wade took over.
Wade scored 18 of his game-best 39 points in the final 12 minutes while the 76ers netted 17 as a team. The former Marquette guard added 11 rebounds, eight assists and five blocks to his sheet while LeBron James (32 points, 10 rebounds) and Chris Bosh (20 points, 10 rebounds) each recorded double-doubles.
Friday's win was the Heat's seventh in their last eight games after dropping five straight earlier this month. Miami backers as well as 'under' bettors have cashed five times during the recent eight-game span.
The lone meeting between the two teams this campaign occurred in Houston on Dec. 29 with Miami notching a 125-119 win as five-point road chalk. Just as the Sixers had no answer for Wade on Friday night, the Rockets couldn't stop him in that December matchup. Wade scored 45 points, his high so far this season, despite having to leave the game early in the fourth quarter for stitches to close a cut on his lip. He scored 15 points after returning to the floor and Miami's victory stopped a Houston eight-game win streak.
Chase Budinger, who missed the Rockets' win over Golden State with an ankle injury, should return this Sunday against the Heat. Miami's Mario Chalmers (knee) is still a week or so away from action with Zydrunas Ilgauskas, out since March 10 with a foot injury, officially questionable for this contest.
The Rockets' last win in Miami came in November 2008. They are just 16-20 on the road this season, but have won five of their last seven away from Houston. Rick Adelman's club will continue its three-game trip on Tuesday in New Jersey before heading to Philadelphia the next night.
Miami's short two-game homestand concludes with Sunday's game. The Heat have four on the highway next week beginning with Tuesday's contest in Cleveland who the Heat have already beaten three times this season, going 2-1 ATS.
NBA Betting Preview: Kobe Bryant, Lakers host Hornets
By: Adam Markowitz
The New Orleans Hornets are going to try to make a big-time statement on Sunday night in Tinseltown, and they have a real shot to do it against the Los Angeles Lakers in NBA betting action.
Tip time is set for 6:30 p.m. (PT) from LA's Staples Center.
It's not all peachy for the Hornets, though. They're already handicapped knowing that they are really only right around a .500 team since getting off to that hot start at the outset of the season. Now, head coach Monty Williams knows that he has to do without David West for the rest of the year as well.
Losing West to an ACL injury was one of the worst things that could have happened to New Orleans. West was the team's leading scorer at 18.9 PPG, and he was also the second-leading rebounder at 7.6 RPG.
Chris Paul now has to take over as the top scorer and the top distributor, and that just isn't going to cut it in all likelihood.
The good news is that CP3 can do it all in small spurts. He is averaging 16.4 PPG and 9.8 APG. He's also a decent rebounder at 4.0 RPG as well. Paul will still need a lot of help from the rest of his scorers.
Trevor Ariza, Emeka Okafor, Marco Belinelli and Carl Landry are all double-digit scorers on an average basis, but the one to really watch out for is Landry. The 6-foot-9 forward out of Purdue is the newcomer of the bunch and the one that is the most likely to pick up the scoring slack that West is leaving behind.
Meanwhile, it's just another great season for the Lakers. They haven't lost a game since getting beaten at Miami back on March 10, but the NBA betting public hates the fact that they are 0-4 ATS over the course of their last four overall.
This is the sixth of a seven-game homestand that has put Los Angeles back in the driver's seat for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference standings. There's still a chance that LA can snag the top spot in the conference as well, but that's going to take some great play and a heck of a lot of luck down the stretch.
Kobe Bryant has come up with tremendous back-to-back games against the Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Suns. He scored 37 points and had six assists with four rebounds against the Clips, but that wasn't his best game. Bryant put up 42 points, pulled in 12 rebounds and added nine helpers in the win against the Suns in OT.
He's now averaging 25.1 PPG, and he's the man that can take over for head coach Phil Jackson at any point, just as he has for his entire career.
The Hornets just haven't had a chance in this series this season. They have lost all three duels, including the Jan. 7 matchup here at Staples Center. However, that was the one of the three clashes that did end with New Orleans beating the NBA odds. The other good news for the Hornets is that the underdog is 14-3 ATS over the course of the last 17 meetings in this series.