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AC TITTICOCK'S WEEKLY FREE NBA BASKETBALL PICKS AND WINNERS
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AC's Wagercom 2006-2007 NBA Picks Season Record
Wins: 48 Losses: 54 Ties: 1
NBA Picks Winning Percentage: 47%
Record updated Saturdays and Mondays
Contact AC at ac@wagercom.com or post your questions/comments on the Wagercom Message Board
Read AC's Bio
AC's outlook on the NBA is an entertaining original column featured here at Wagercom. If you are prone to NBA betting or even just an NBA fan, make sure you come back often to read his articles and free NBA Basketball picks against the spread. AC will be providing us with a weekly outlook during the basketball season including free NBA Basketball picks on some of the weekend games each Friday and Saturday.
Our NBA expert AC has had 3 consecutive winning seasons picking NBA games against the spread for a combined 317-281 record yielding a 53% winning percentage which would have won you money including the VIG. AC does this out of the kindness of his heart and for the naked pictures of your girlfriends you send him as a token of your appreciation. So enjoy the columns and the picks..
AC'S NBA FREE PICKS WEEK 13:
It’s time for the annual State of The AC. Much like George Bush just gave his State of the Union Address (in summary, things are not so good), I will give my mid-season analysis of how my pre-season predictions have faired and update them with mid-season predictions. In short, just read below:
Eastern Conference:
Overall:
Injuries have really put a damper on the Eastern Conference pre-season predictions, well that and the chance to win the Greg Oden Sweepstakes. The Heat not having Shaq for most of the season and Wade missing a bunch of games have seriously hindered my pre-season analysis. Additionally, injuries to Paul Pierce, injuries to the Nets, and the trading of Allen Iverson have changed the dynamics of the East completely. However, I believe most damaging to the East is that everyone who is not in the playoffs is actually trying to lose to get more ping pong balls. Usually the draft does not have two potential franchise players (Oden and Durant) so teams still try to be competitive even though they are out of it. I don’t believe that is happening this year. The Celtics, Sixers, and Hawks have pretty much just given up. When teams are not playing to win, it makes prognosticating more difficult. That said, AC still picked six out of eight playoff teams and will be right on seven out of eight (oh Boston how you have fallen) by the time the year is done (Miami is getting in).
Best Pick: Orlando
A lot of pundits had the Magic not making the playoffs but those same pundits had also never watched Dwight Howard play. Howard is a beast, plain and simple. Add in Jameer Nelson’s steady play, the resurgence of Grant Hill, and Hedo Turkoglu’s scoring and you have a team good enough to compete in the Leastern Conference. While the Magic have slumped as of late, they will find their stride again and prove a difficult opponent in the playoffs. Still a year too early for this team, but they are definitely improving.
Worst Pick: Washington
Technically Boston is the worst pick but they have played without Paul Pierce, Tony Allen, Al Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, Bill Russell, and Tommy Heinsohn for much of the season. The injury to Pierce pretty much sealed their demise, so you can’t blame me for that. You can blame me for missing the Wizards though. There are three factors I missed when picking them to finish seventh (though they still may finish seventh) and those are: The emergence of Caron Butler, the overall crapiness of the East, and Gilbert Arenas being flat out bonkers. Gilbert has been able to score driving to the hoop, from three, and even from half-court. He is more unstoppable than Rosie O’Donnell at Ben and Jerry’s annual free ice cream day. Plus Gilbert had the best quote of the year where he said on his blog in reference to Coach K snubbing him from the national team:
“if I have the chance to go back to college, I’ll give up one NBA season to play against Duke. One college game…that’s five fouls, right?...40-minute game…at Duke, they got soft rims…I’d probably score 84 or 85. I wouldn’t pass the ball. I wouldn’t even think about passing it. It would be like a NBA Live or an NBA 2K7 game, you just shoot with one person.”
So when you have that type of competitor in a terrible conference playing with two other all-star caliber players (Butler and Jamison), you have a decent team. I underestimated that, but I still think they don’t have the inside game to go far in the playoffs.
Due to move up in the second half: Miami
Shaq is back, but more importantly, Wade is healthy. Plus as soon as Riley’s hip is better, Ron Rothstein will move from crappy head coach back to crappy assistant. Wade is too good to miss the playoffs and this team is too experienced to let it happen. I still think they will make a run when they get into the playoffs, but then again, I still think Rushmore should have won a Best Picture award.
Due to fall in the second half: Washington
I just went over why they have outperformed expectations, but I also firmly believe that with zero inside game (Brendan Haywood Jablowme and Etan Thomas are really really bad, like six week old milk, or any movie with the Olsen twins), they are due to fall. You can only rely on your guards so much until they break down and the Wiz are due for an injury. That said, I still think they will get into the playoffs, but not as the #1 seed, more like a 4 or 5 seed. Also, watch out for a Cleveland collapse should LeDong be out with his foot injury for an extended period of time. Danny Ferry has surrounded LeDong with less talent than the cast of the White Rapper Show (which is by far and away this season’s best television offering, and I am not making that up).
Western Conference:
Overall:
I correctly picked seven out of eight playoff teams, so not too bad. The one blunder was Utah but the Jazz are 17-14 since opening the season by winning twelve out of their first thirteen, which would put them right around the 8th seed which is about where I had predicted them. So overall not a bad showing for AC.
Best Pick: Houston
Tough call but I am going to go with Houston on this one. The Rockets are tied for 5th place despite playing without Yao for about half the season and despite McGrady missing a bunch of games as well. I still think the Western conference is going to come down to Houston and Phoenix if the Rockets are healthy. Besides the fact that Rafer Alston is shooting worse than Stevie Wonder trying to hit a curveball, the Rockets have been winning because of their Jeff Van Gundy slow it down defense. When Yao comes back, watch out.
Worst Pick: Sacramento
Technically Minnesota and Utah were worse picks but the Kings have zero chance to make the playoffs and I had them as a seventh seed. I am confused, baffled, and bewildered by this Kings team. I haven’t been more confused by anything since trying to understand the proof to Poincare’s conjecture or trying to understand how people can actually watch Deal or No Deal. With Brad Miller, Ron Artest, Michael Bibby, and Kevin Martin, one would think this team would be at least at .500. I really have no answers. If you do, feel free to shoot me an e-mail, or better yet, shoot one to Eric Musselman.
Due to move up in the second half: Houston
As stated before, when Yao comes back, they will go on a streak. That said, no one in the West is going to move dramatically.
Due to fall in the second half: LA Lakers
Again, no one in the West is really going to move too much up or down. I just think the Lakers are more of a 7th seed than a 5th seed, but then again if Odom comes back, they could stay at 5. Utah is also due to drop some more, maybe from a 4th seed to a 6th seed, so not a big drop either.
Friday Night Free NBA Picks:
Cleveland -4.5 at Philadelphia:
The Cavaqueers lost on Wednesday to the Sixers in Cleveland by 3 points in overtime so this might seem like a bad bet. However, the odds of getting struck twice by lightning are on the order of 1 in 9 million, somewhat similar to the odds of Ray Romano being on a hit television show, so not impossible, but highly improbable. In any instance, take the Cavs and hope they play with some intensity, or more importantly, hope the Sixers play like the Sixers.
With LeDong injured for tonight’s game, the line on the Sixers-Cavs game has changed to Sixers -1. As a result, I am no longer picking that game. Change your bet if you have already made it. I apologize for the lateness, I just found out LeDong is not suiting up. Instead I offer you this:
Denver at Utah -3: I hate Utah but the Nuggets are due for a loss. Just deal with it.
Phoenix -10.5 at Milwaukee:
10.5 points is a lot to give on the road, especially to Milwaukee where visiting teams are lulled to sleep by boredom and cheese (and I highly recommend a 10 year smoked cheddar, the Ferrari of cheese). However, the Bucks are really just not very good. In fact I would be surprised if any of my readers could name all five starters on the Bucks and I'll spot you Earl Boykins and Terry Cummings. Phoenix should simply run them out of the building, so you might want to tease the over 220 as well. As long as the Suns decide not to play 4 on 5 just for the challenge, they should win by double digits.
Memphis at San Antonio Under 213:
It's all about dictating pace (hehehe, I said dick, kind of) and it's more likely that the Spurs will be able to do this than the Grizzlies. As long as San Antonio plays one quarter of tough defense, this should be a low 200 point game. Take the Spurs and hope they get bored early and go to the bench.
Washington +5.5 at Detroit:
I really hate this game and while Portland +10.5 at Houston seems interesting, one has to believe the Wizards are going to want to try to prove something in this game tonight. I'm not sure who will win, but it should come down to the last minute. Just hope Jamison and Butler play well so Arenas doesn't need to drop 70.
Saturday Night Free NBA Picks:
Philadelphia at Atlanta -4.5:
You could go with the under 187.5 due to the rule that when two crappy teams play each other, neither one can score, but in this instance, the defense might be so bad someone could crack 100. This is really a terrible game. I imagine the NBDL game tonight with the SkyForce vs. the 66ers will be a more interesting game to watch (and take the SkyForce and the points if you can). Just hope Joe Johnson does anything.
New Jersey at Denver -7:
The Nets are not very good right now and the Nuggets are coming off of a tough road loss to Utah. The Nuggets should win this by 20 as Mikki Moore covering Marcus Camby is kind of like, well, it’s kind of like Mikki Moore covering Marcus Camby. In short, not good for the Nets. Give the points and root for Melo and AI to fill it up.
Sacramento at Dallas -11.5:
The Kings are not just really bad, they are also really bad on the road. Add in the fact that they played last night while the Mavs were resting at home and you have the makings of a blow out. Take the Mavs and just hope Artest doesn’t pull a nutty and take out Dirk and Josh Howard.
Minnesota at LA Clippers -6.5:
That’s right, we’re going with 4 home teams giving points tonight. In other words, good luck.
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