The slow season has set in on the sportsbooks with NBA and college basketball dominating the scheds. Sportsbooks right now are licking their chops in preparation for the March Madness, and understandably so.
There’s so many bad teams in the NBA right now it’s ridiculous. Most teams have gutted their rosters in preparation for the 2010 free agent sweepstakes widening the gap between good teams and piss poor ones. In the NBA many of the favorites are still favored except for the boys from Boston. It appears the slow betting season has hit the Boston Celtics too. Once a solid bet has now turned sour, and I for one am pissed off. I took a future wager for the Celtics to win it all this year and now I’m kicking myself for not taking the Cavaliers.
What happened to Boston? At the beginning of the season if you took a look at that lineup you’d feel pretty comfortable picking them to go the distance. It looks like age is taking its toll on one of the NBA’s oldest teams both historically and literally. Rajon Rondo still can’t hit that 15 footer, Kevin Garnett hobbles around setting moving screens, Ray Allen scores as consistently as a erectile deficient senior citizen, minus the Viagra, and the second unit, doesn’t play any defense at all. The tell tale sign that team is in trouble is when a team known for its defense and rebounding is getting murked by the New Jersey Nets and ranks almost dead last in league team rebounding. Heading into the Nets game the Celtic were a pitiful 0-5 against the spread and they failed yet again to cover the points spread over the lowly Nets.
If it wasn’t for Paul Pierce, the self proclaimed top shooter of all time, this team might be on a level with the Toronto Raptors. That’s no slight on the Raptors but that’s a slap in the face to the Celtics whose biggest move at the trade deadline was picking up the troublesome winner of the worst dunk competition of all time, Nate Robinson. What should have been a huge matchup with the Celtics and the Cavaliers ended up being a blow out, with the Cavs second unit basically routing the Celtics on their home floor. Hopefully the Celtics turn it around so I can get excited about betting on the Eastern Conference playoffs.
It looks like basketball fans and sportsbooks will have to wait for March Madness for some major action and a chance to quench their competitive thirst. This March Madness is sure to be filled with as many upsets as the regular season in which pretty much every number one seed has seen a floor rush. It’s anyone’s guess who will take it this year, and for once, it looks like Duke, a team everyone likes to bet on to be upset early, might be able to make a decent run. But before the Madness begins, the conference tournaments kick off, and are always a good indicator of which teams are gelling together at the end of the season. The biggest question most basketball fans and bettors want to know is will the Tarheels make the tournament. Their senior night win over the U was a nice win, but their spotty record in conference play may have the defending national champions watching from Tobacco road. Sportsbooks mount up, and let the Madness begin.
