Derrick Rose and team USA are 23.5 point favorites over Russia on Thursday morning
Russia has appeared strong in this tournament despite being without versatile forward  Andrei Kirilenko. Their other former NBA player, Victor Kryhapa, has not been playing either.  Their only loss, to Turkey, came as no surprise, as Hedo Turkoglu, Ersan Ilyasova, and the rest of the Turkish team has been great playing in their home country for this tournament.   Sasha Kaun has been a bright spot for Russia, as well.  He went late in the second round of the NBA draft, but has looked to be worth much more in play throughout.  His lanky and gangly frame allows him to squirm his way for open looks.  Thus far he is averaging 11.5 ppg.

Continue reading “FIBA Basketball Betting Preview: USA Vs Russia”

While USA should have an easy win in game 1 of the Elimination round, Brazil will likely be in a war with Argentina
Here is a match up analysis and recap of the games for the top teams in the tournament.  There have been some surprises so far, but overall the US team is still the odds on favorite at this point.  For those of you who made dark horse bets on Brazil, Lithuania, and Serbia — Congrats.  All three are looking like they have a legitimate shot at winning this thing.  That said, let’s breakdown the matchups with some picks now that the tournament is rolling and pool play is through.  All FIBA betting lines for this article were taken from Bookmaker and Bodog.

Continue reading “FIBA Basketball Picks: Elimination Round Betting Preview With Odds”

The FIBA world championships could be Derrick Rose's coming out party.
Part II FIBA World Championships, taking a look at the players and odds for some of the teams in Groups C & B.

Continue reading “FIBA World Championships Betting Preview: Part II”

 The Denver Nuggets, the second seed in the West, easily beat the New Orleans Hornets four games to one in their opening series, while the Dallas Mavericks, the sixth seed, surprised the third seed San Antonio Spurs, winning their series four to one.  The result is the Denver Nuggets will take on the Dallas Mavericks in the second round. Both teams have had plenty of time to rest and prepare. Which team looks to have the advantage in this one?

Continue reading “Denver Nuggets Versus Dallas Mavericks”

Allen Iverson is my favorite NBA player, and he has been wasting away in Denver (and Philly for a few years before that, for that matter), so I am very happy to see him get moved today. Despite my bias, I have to say that the trade of Iverson to Detroit for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess is a very good one for both teams – one with a chance for a real win-win scenario. Here’s a look:

Detroit Pistons

Continue reading “Allen Iverson is a Piston: Analysis”

  • After two games in Boston LeBron James is 8-of-42 shooting. Ouch. Boston is good and all, but that’s no excuse for a guy that good to be that bad
  • Zab Judah hurt his arm and had to pull out of a fight against Sugar Shane Mosley scheduled for the end of the month. Boxing is in a sad state when the biggest story of the week is that we don’t get to see a fight between a couple of mostly washed up guys that nobody really needed to see anyway
  • Here’s a news flash – Brandon Webb is pretty good. He made his eighth start of the year today and earned his league leading eighth win. He did it by tossing a gem – two earned runs and four strikeouts without a walk in a complete game. He’d picked on some lousy teams in his first six starts, but he’s beat the Mets and the Phillies in the last two, so the impressive factor just ratcheted up a bit.
  • Dallas can start booking tee times for about 10 days from now. The Stars have only played one game against the Red Wings, but it looked like the men against the boys. The world would have to tilt on its axis for Detroit to beat Dallas.
  • Sergio Garcia is leading the first round of the Players Championship by two strokes, but a stat jumped out when I saw it – the Spaniard is sitting 158th on the tour in putts per round. It’s not a wonder that he isn’t living up to his potential of late. That’s ugly.
  • Chauncey Billups says he isn’t sure if he is going to play in game four after he strained his right hamstring in game three. I’m sure he ultimately will play unless he is confined to a stretcher or something, but that’s not very good news for the Pistons. Obviously.
  • It’s funny how baseball works. If you had asked me six weeks ago I would have told you that Cleveland was dangerous because there rotation was so good, but if I had a guy who was going to be carrying a heavy load who I was worried about it was Cliff Lee. Now, Lee is 6-0 and giving up less than a run a game, Fausto Carmona is solid at 3-1 with a 2.95 ERA, and the rest of the rotation is 3-12. You couldn’t have seen that coming anymore than you could have seen that Detroit’s staff would be 6-16, or that Justin Verlander would be stinking it out at 1-6 with a 6.43 ERA. I was rock solid on Verlander as my Cy Young pick, and I was feeling painfully unoriginal doing it.

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