Bet on NBA Playoffs - Under The Radar Teams
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
by BetUS.com
We all know that the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers are going to be the cream of the crop in the NBA playoffs. While the MVP debate is an open and shut case, betting the NBA playoffs has always been chalk full of surprises. Which teams are flying in under the radar as the regular season comes to a close? My two choices are probably going to surprise you.
Eastern Conference – Boston Celtics
Say what? The Boston Celtics may have all sorts of name value in basketball betting circles, but in terms of actual value they’ve been limping as much as their aging stars. Boston’s recent 3-7 ATS record in regular season play has made them a distant memory in basketball betting, and many have written them off as first-round fodder for the playoffs.
Don’t be fooled. The Celtics are a veteran team, and are just two seasons removed from reigning supreme as NBA Champions in 2008. They’ve made it clear that their number-one priority for this season has been to get to the playoffs healthy. Not as a top-seed. Not as a scary, dominant opponent. They just wanted to get there healthy.
Paul Pierce (32), Ray Allen (34) and Kevin Garnett (33) may all be reaching the ends of their careers, the Boston Celtics Three Party is surrounded by more talent than seems fair. Aside from Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo, the Boston Celtics still have Nate Robinson, Glen Davis and Marquis Daniels coming off the bench.
Granted, this season has been an absolute embarrassment for the Boston Celtics’ fans. But Doc Rivers and company have perhaps lulled everyone in to doubting them by playing possum. Getting to the playoffs healthy is immensely difficult considering how old the Celtics are, and how rough and tumble the Eastern Conference became this year.
Well, they’ve accomplished priority one – getting KG to the playoffs without putting to much wear and tear on his knees. You’ll know by Game 2 of their first-round series if they’ve been laying low during the regular season. The money I am betting in the BetUS Sportsbook says that they have been.
Western Conference – Utah Jazz
The top-ranked Lakers and eight-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder are separated by just eight wins, which means that the middle ground in Western Conference playoff betting is stacked with evenly matched teams. Nobody’s going to sleep on Phoenix with Amar’e and Nash playing so damn well. The Denver Nuggets went to the Western Conference Championship series when everyone doubted - won’t happen again this season. The Spurs have garnered all sorts of attention for their veteran tricks that have undressed younger teams.
That makes the Utah Jazz one of those tricky teams to figure out. Led by Jerry Sloan, who has been coaching this team ever since James Naismith sawed out the bottom of those peach baskets, the Utah Jazz have yet to claim their first championship as a franchise. They’ve almost always seemed like a disjointed and fractured band of stars as well, which makes their chemistry questionable.
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Chemistry, however, doesn’t matter as much as a player’s greed. Carlos Boozer bolted from a championship tandem with LeBron James in Cleveland for a bit more money in Utah. Well guess who’s a free-agent this summer with no type of extension in place in Utah? That’s right – Boozer.
Nobody has more to prove than Boozer, who is considered a distant booby prize to Chris Bosh and Amar’e Stoudemire in the free-agent frenzy of this summer. Mehmet Okur, the stalwart center of the Jazz, is still nursing an Achilles tendon injury which will force Paul Millsap and Boozer to play side-by-side. Boozer is still a huge gamer, and may have to put his best foot forward if he is to step in to the spotlight this summer. That makes Utah a very unsettling and dangerous team.
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basketball betting - boston celtics - cleveland cavaliers - denver nuggets - los angeles lakers - nba playoffs - oklahoma city thunder - orlando magic - utah jazz