Now that the madness of March has passed us by and the 2014 college basketball champs have been crowned, basketball bettors will be turning their attention to the NBA and the upcoming playoffs. Yes folks, it’s almost that time again. The NBA Playoffs are all set to begin on April 19th and the race for the remaining spots on the programs is coming to a head.
Some teams are going for record winning seasons, while others are having record breaking seasons of a not so glorious type. After a break on Monday evening for the NCAA Championship game, the NBA gets back underway with a full card for the remainder of the week.
The Heat, once again, lost to the Brooklyn Nets, who they did not manage to beat during the entire 2014 season. Even though Miami has one of the best records in professional basketball, the Nets have been their nemesis so far this year and the Nets are already in the playoff picture alongside the Heat.
After an impressive seven game run of going OVER each time, oddsmakers finally adjusted the totals on Brooklyn up a bit after witnessing such aggressive play from the Nets this season. Four of their last five games have gone UNDER, after the adjustment was made.
One of the big surprises of the season has been the Chicago Bulls playing well without the presence of their star player Derrick Rose. The Bulls are in the playoffs! Joakim Noah has stepped up to lead the Bulls on an impressive run that finds them in third place in the NBA East behind Miami and Indiana and primed for the playoffs.
After the Indiana Pacers began to lose games in which they were supposed to win, the Miami Heat finally moved into first place in the East but still trail the Spurs, the Thunder and the Clippers in the West, all of which have racked up more total wins. But the Heat won and covered 5 of their last 7 games without the services of Dwyane Wade who is temporally out with a hamstring injury.
Currently Miami is holding strong as the favorites to win the NBA Title once again at +140 followed by the Spurs at +200, the Pacers at +255 and the Oklahoma City Thunder at +330. Clearly it’s going to be a tight race for home court advantage for the remaining games of the 2014 season.
