NBA Betting Picks: NBA All Star Game

Added on Feb 20, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

The only pro basketball betting action on Sunday will be the NBA All Star Game between the Eastern and Western Conference at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The first NBA All Star game was played in Boston back in 1951 and has been renewed annually ever since. Despite a few injuries that have forced minor roster changes but all of the big names from the Eastern and Western Conferences will be at the Staples Center in Los Angeles including Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. The San Antonio Spurs’ Greg Popovich will coach the Western Conference team while Boston’s Doc Rivers will coach the Eastern Conference.

NBA All Star Game
February 20, 2011 5:25 PM Pacific

The NBA All Star game is usually one of the more entertaining of the professional sports all star events. Baseball’s All Star Game is usually pretty good since there’s not only the ‘bragging rights’ between the NL and AL on the line but the outcome determines home field advantage for the World Series. The NHL All Star game is a cut below, though there’s enough offense to make it watchable. The NFL Pro Bowl often dips in the ‘painful to watch’ category.

While the MLB All Star Game has seen long winning streaks the American or National League that hasn’t been the case in the NBA. With the exception of a five year winning streak by the East in the early 1980’s neither conference has been able to string together more than two or three wins in a row. And while historically the games themselves haven’t always been competitive the trend in recent years has been toward tightly contested affairs—seven of the last ten NBA All Star games have been decided by 10 points or fewer including last season when the East beat the West 141-139 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.

Like its NHL counterpart, the emphasis in the NBA All Star game is on scoring and offense with very little defense or physical play in evidence. Additionally, the referees often overlook infractions such as traveling that would get whistled down in any other game resulting in a fast paced, end to end shootout. The Over/Under totals on NBA All Star games are always high, and while there may be some theoretical value in playing the ‘Under’ from a practical standpoint you don’t want to have the outcome of your bet riding on either team making a ‘stop’ down the stretch because it’s not going to happen.

As far as the outcome of the game, there’s a good case to be made for each side for different reasons. The Eastern Conference will feature Miami’s Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James along with Boston’s Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo (along with coach Doc Rivers). That could give the East more continuity in their play since so much of their roster is from the same team. The West, meanwhile, may have more size up front with Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, Kevin Love and Dirk Nowitzki and will arguably have the better playmakers in the backcourt with Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Deron Williams.

With the game being played on the home court of the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, we expect the Western Conference to pull out a single digit victory in a game with very little defense that goes Over the total. This looks like an even better position since we’re betting against the ‘public’ and getting a couple of points working in our favor. A number of sportsbooks are offering the game at +2 and we’ll take that price.

Bet Western Conference +2 over Eastern Conference
Bet NBA All Star Game Over 269