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AC TITTICOCK'S WEEKLY FREE NBA BASKETBALL PICKS AND WINNERS
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AC's Wagercom 2008-2009 NBA Picks Season Record
Wins: 29 Losses: 19 Ties: 0
NBA Picks Winning Percentage: 60%
Contact AC at ac(at sign)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 6 consecutive winning seasons picking NBA games against the spread making 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 2008-2009 NBA FREE PICKS WEEK 6:
We are ¼ of the way through the NBA season and some important questions have emerged. Who will pull a Plaxico in the NBA and shoot himself in the weiner? Is Glen “Big Baby” Davis the first player to have his own teammate make him cry during a nationally televised NBA game? If no one watches a Wizards game, can they really be 3-14?
The answers are obviously Zach “Two Times Anal” Randolph, yes, and who cares.
There are other, more important questions though and today I will answer the three biggest questions in the Eastern conference right now. Next week I will take a stab at the West in honor of Rafer Alston.
Is New Jersey for real?
In my NBA preview, I had the Nets as one of the worst teams in the NBA and they have outperformed that like Tony Allen getting an 850 on the SATs (so better than expectations, but still not something to brag about). Right now the Nets are 10-8 behind the inspired play of Vince Carter, the maturation of Devin Harris, and the solid play in the middle of Brook Lopez. Looking at their schedule shows they have a 4-3 record against teams with .500 records and above and a 6-5 record against teams with .500 records and below. There isn’t much to learn from that other than that they are a middle of the pack team, which is better than I predicted.
The problem with thinking the Nets are for real though is that so much hinges on Vince Carter who has proven to care about playing basketball about as much as Lois Feldman cares about being married or watching an Iowa Hawkeyes game.
Carter has quit on his team more times than Shannon Tweed has been in B-Movies, which is a lot. Plus with the Nets wanting to cut salary for their run at LeDong in 2010, Carter is available on the trade market for teams making a playoff push (Hello Cleveland). So history would tell us Carter will either get injured or disinterested very soon. Plus teams will start running more defensive schemes geared towards Devin Harris and Harris will also come back down to Earth. He’s good, but not 25 ppg good.
In short, the Nets are at best a .500 team and that is where they are right now, playing their best. Short the Nets if you can. I expect a 30-35 win team, which is better than I initially thought, but still not very good.
What is wrong in Philadelphia?
Well, other than the school system, the budget, and all of the fat and ugly people? I’d say a lot. But we are just focusing on the Sixers here and won’t get into the library closings, the preponderance of Italian restaurants (seriously, has a restauranteer in Philly ever heard of diversity?), and oh yeah, that little problem about the murder rate. So what exactly is the Sixers problem?
They were the darlings of the NBA last year, outperforming with no real stars and a whole lot of hustle. In the offseason they seemed to address their biggest need in acquiring a big man who can score in Elton Brand and thus in theory vaulting them to the upper tier of the East. So what is going wrong? Well, a few things.
1. Elton Brand is coming off of major achilles surgery, turns 30 this year, and frankly, was never that good. He’s been to the playoffs once in his previous nine years and has slowed down the Sixers pace.
2. Bringing in Brand and starting Thaddeus Young has moved Andre Igoudala over to the 2 guard spot and out of the small forward spot where he is a better fit. Igoudala is not a classic scorer or penetrater, something a two guard should be. Instead, he is kind of a jack of all trades which is better suited to the small forward because he doesn’t have to waste all of his energy usually covering the other team’s best scorer and he can out quick many of the other small forwards.
3. Lou Williams has disappeared. Everyone knows AC is the biggest Lou Williams fan outside of Snellville, GA but to say Lou has been inconsistent would be an insult to the word inconsistent.
4. The players haven’t figured it out yet. They are still deferring to Brand rather than just playing basketball. Thinking that Brand is an all-star and can lead them to victories has caused the effort level to decrease and this team won solely on effort last year.
5. They have no shooters. None, zero, zip. They need a shooter off the bench to get them some easy kick out points when the ball goes to Brand inside.
6. They are still starting Samuel Dalembert at center who has to be the career leader in fumbles in the NBA.
So there are a lot of things going wrong with the Sixers right now. They have time to figure it out but it is not surprising they won in Detroit last night without Elton Brand.
How good are the Celtics?
If the Celtics were book, they would be War and Peace. If the Celtics were a movie, they would be Citizen Kane. If the Celtics were a pornstar, they would be Taylor Rain. They are simply that good.
The Celtics are just demolishing teams in their way even with their marginal bench. Rajon Rondo has been playing like an all-star over the past 10 games and in those games the Celtics have not only not lost, but blown teams out. They easily dismantled the Blazers last night and the Blazers had the 4th best record in the league. Kevin Garnett is so intense, Paul Pierce is so good, and Ray Allen is shooting so well, that if those guys play 40 minutes a night, they can’t lose.
Barring injury, this Celtics team could set the NBA win record, no joke.
FRIDAY NIGHT FREE NBA PICKS
As the great Big Daddy Kane said on his seminal track Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy “Friday night, ain’t a damn thing funny, Bitch better have my money .” Given our current economic disaster, those lyrics could not be more prescient. So in honor of nothing being funny on this Friday night, we will be making our bookies give us our money with the picks below.
Portland at Boston -8:
While I am excited for the Greg Oden-Kendrick Perkins match-up where I predict Kperk hits Oden with a clumsy elbow and ends Oden’s season, and while I am excited to see the feisty young Blazers take on the Celtics, there is no way this game is close in the end. The Celtics are dominating the NBA right now like a young Herve Villechaize dominated the Little People of America National Convention in the 1970s. With Rajon Rondo morphing into good Rondo more often than not, the Celtics have moved from very good team, to potential juggernaut. I like the Blazers, I think they can upset some teams in the playoffs, but they are not playing some team tonight. Don’t be nervous if the game is close for awhile, just watch Boston’s finishing kick.
Indiana +11 at Cleveland:
Every time I get off of the Indiana bandwagon, something drags me back on to it. The Pacers have now defeated both the Lakers and the Celtics this year and if you haven’t noticed those teams have combined for only 4 losses. While both of those wins were at home, the Pacers seem to get up for the big games thanks to Danny Granger’s continued improvement and Troy “double-double” Murphy controlling the boards. I am also not convinced that Cleveland is 10 points better than a mediocre team. So take the Pacers and hope they shoot over 40% from the floor.
LA Clippers -1 at Memphis:
Zach Randolph is averaging 22 and 11. Baron Davis is healthy. Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman are very big. Eric Gordon has started to shoot lights out. None of this has translated to any success so far but that is because they have been playing good teams. Luckily for the Clippers, Chris “The Destroyer of Teams” Wallace is the GM of Memphis which means they are not a good team. I liked this line better when it opened as Memphis -1.5, but we’ll still take the Clips even though we have to give 1. Just hope Zach Randolph did not kill anyone last night and is available for the game.
Minnesota at New Jersey Under 201.5:
I am not buying New Jersey as a legitimate team yet and I have sold the Terriblewolves® as a legitimate team many times over. While I am tempted to take the Pistons -8 vs. the Sixers as well as the over 209 in the Houston-Golden Shower State game, I am picking this game because Minnesota has been struggling to score as teams are doubling more effectively on The Big Lazy Al Jefferson. Additionally, Randy Wittman finally seems to be getting fed up with the Big Lazy’s poor defense and is substituting in better defenders. I don’t love taking this game, but these are the type of games that Vince Carter takes off so take the under and close your eyes.
SATURDAY FREE NBA PICKS
Utah +8 at Phoenix:
I haven’t quite figured out this Utah team yet, but I have figured out that Phoenix is playing like crap. While this has the makings of a trap game (Utah played last night, Phoenix is due for a win), I’d still take my chances with the Jazz and a somewhat healthy Deron Williams. I’m not sure the Jazz win this game, but they shouldn’t get blown out. They’re too deep for that.
Denver -5 at Sacramento:
I don’t love taking this game as the Nuggets are playing way above their heads right now. That said, the Kings blow like a $3 hooker, and I am not entirely sure what that means. Inserting Spencer Hawes into the starting line-up was a good move by Reggie Theus (much better than when he inserted himself into this poster) but the Kings are still somewhat disjointed even if Kevin martin is due back. Take the Nuggets and tease it with the under if you can.
Oklahoma City at Miami -10.5:
The Thunder played last night in Orlando which means they had just a quick flight to Miami and a whole night on South Beach. There is no way Russell Westbrook did go threesome last night, no way. In fact, he still may be in the middle of one which means he is going to have no interest in the game tonight. Same goes for Kevin Durant. The Heat aren’t playing all that well but they should get it done at home tonight as there is no one on the Thunder who can even come close to guarding Dwyane Wyane Wade, not even on NBA Live 2008.
Atlanta +8 at Dallas:
I hate this game as much as I hate mayonnaise (and seriously, AC really hates him some mayonnaise) but the games tonight are just awful. Dallas has found their stride, they haven’t played since Thursday, and the Hawks played last night and barely beat New York. So everything points to a Dallas victory. We’re just not buying the 8 points. Atlanta should be able to keep this game close as long as Joe Johnson doesn’t turn the ball over 6 times. Take the Hawks and root for them not to commit stupid unforced turnovers.
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