NBA and NCAA Basketball Lines - Sports Betting Games of the Week

by Bodog Sportsbook | Feb 21 2008

The NBA playoffs are almost here, with less than 35 games to go. On Friday, it’s the Washington Wizards versus the Cleveland Cavaliers at 8 p.m. EST and the Boston Celtics versus the Phoenix Suns at 10:30 p.m. EST.

The Wizards at 25-28 and the Cavaliers at 30-24 have both been struggling with injured players over the last couple of weeks. On the Wizards roster, two of their highest scorers are out with injuries including forward Caron Butler, who’s out with a hip injury. On a brighter note, guard Gilbert Arenas, although out due to a knee injury, should be back within the next couple of weeks. The injuries have been bad news for the Wizards, who were on an eight game losing streak before their win against the Los Angeles Clippers. Unfortunately for the Wizards, they didn’t follow up with another win in their last game against the New York Knicks and are now facing another losing streak bout if they don’t start picking up the slack for their missing teammates.

The Cavaliers, who in January faced more losses than wins, have so far been trying to keep their wins up in February. Like the Wizards, the Cavaliers have also faced quite a few injuries. Guard Daniel Gibson is out with an ankle injury that varies from day to day. Center-forward Anderson Varejao also has an ankle injury but his return status is set to a week to ten days. Trade deadline day is also coming up and this means good things for the Cavaliers. They’re waiting for approval of a three-way trade with Chicago and Seattle regarding 11 players. The new Cavaliers could include Ben Wallace and Joe Smith from the Chicago Bulls and Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West from the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Celtics are at 41-11 and have been going strong at the top of the standings for the entire season. The Suns, at 37-17, lost against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday despite Shaquille O’Neal’s much-awaited debut. Seems as though Shaq’s 15 points, nine rebounds and two blocks fell below average of what was expected of his performance.

On Sunday, the Phoenix Suns have their second game of the weekend against the Detroit Pistons at 2:30 p.m. EST. Both teams fell short in their last games. The Pistons, who lost to the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, will hope to redeem themselves in their game against the Bucks on Friday so that they can go into their game against the Suns with a fresh win and a splash of hope riding behind them.

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This weekend also brings us another huge wave of NCAA basketball games. On Saturday, the No. 4 Kansas Jayhawks play the Oklahoma State Cowboys at 4 p.m. EST. Kansas, sitting at 24-2, was at No. 3 last week but fell to fourth place in the AP’s Top 25. Until the recent lull that Kansas has found themselves in, they had been undefeated, 20-0. 

Next we have the No. 16 Drake Bulldogs at 23-2 taking on the No. 8 and 24-2 Butler Bulldogs at 5 p.m. EST. Drake has been slipping the last couple of games, allowing one too many rebounds from their opponents but this could be their turn-around game if Josh Young can redeem himself after setting up the Bradley Braves for their win last Tuesday. We could get a dog-eat-dog match from Drake wanting to even out the standings.

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And the last key game of the day which could inevitably foreshadow what we might see in the tournament finals is the matchup between the No. 2 Tennessee Volunteers and the No.1 Memphis Tigers at 9 p.m. EST. The Tigers are sitting at 26-0 and are hoping their winning streak will last to make them the first team since the UNLV Rebels in 1991 to remain undefeated.