AC TITTICOCK'S WEEKLY FREE NBA BASKETBALL PICKS AND WINNERS

The new year is upon us which brings us to my top 5 NBA predictions for the remaining season in 2004.

1. Ron Artest will be traded before the season ends and hopefully for the Pacers before he anally violates an opponent on the court. Artest is the Ray Lewis of the NBA, unfortunately, you don’t get paid for knocking people out on the court. You can’t win in the league with a hothead as your best player (Rodman was never the best player on his team). Artest is too unreliable and distracting to take Indiana anywhere. Larry Legend knows this and will deal him as soon as he finds a taker. Portland, anyone?

2. Isiah Thomas will make at least three moves that will make you question why you are not an NBA gm. McDyess will be dealt for James Edwards, Charlie Ward for John Salley, Howard Eisley and Frankie Williams for Adrian Dantley, and Isiah will take over as player coach leading the Knicks to a berth in the field of 64. As a side note, Frankie Williams may be very good.

3. Either Utah, the Clippers, or Houston will win a first round playoff series in the West and the Jailblazers and Nuggets will miss the playoffs. At one point the other night Utah featured 5ish white players on the court, Kirilenko, Harpring, Pavlovic, Handlogten, and Lopez. I’m not sure what that means but Jeff Ruland may be planning a comeback. The Clippers can surprise people with the Q going for 40+ the other night and Elton Brand healthy. As for the Rockets, I would not be surprised to see them win it all, and I am not making that up.

4. Ricky Davis and Jim O’Brien will have an argument leading to Davis being benched. It is as inevitable as Trishelle from the Real World ending up in softcore porn or Richard Jefferson turning the ball over.

5. LeDong will score 50 in a game, end of story.

Anyway, on to the free nba picks for Saturday:

NBA BASKETBALL PICKS FOR SATURDAY 1/03/04

What a horrible night thanks to a lack of information. I picked the Knicks -8 on the strength of Allen Houston and Frankie Williams and then neither of them played. It was not listed on any injury report, just horrible. I feel like a Colorado hotel worker after a Lakers team visit. As for losing the Mavericks game, I knew something was fishy. When you see them favored by only 1 in Milwaukee and they lose, it means the bookies knew something I din’t. David Stern should really investigate because that line made no sense, Dallas should not have lost to the Bucks. So now that I had such a bad night, I am guaranteeing you will all make money tonight.

On to Saturday’s picks:

Minnesota at Dallas +4: Yes, I am taking Dallas again. Four points at home is too much to give up. Who’s going to guard Garnett? I don’t care, let him get 50 as Dirk will get 51.

Orlando at Memphis -7: I am back on the Memphis bandwagon, not because they are good but because Orlando is awful. Gasol is bound to drop 35 points one night and this may be that night as Juwan Howard can’t even guard a piece of lint. Bonzi is coming off of a strong effort as well so hopefully that gets him on track.

Philadelphia +12.5 at San Antonio: No Iverson, no hope but not by 12.5 on national TV. Too many points to give up to a gritty Sixers team. They’ll lose, but not by 12.5.

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