Lawrence Paul is back in the saddle as a regular contributor to the Cappers Picks Blog. He's got an AMAZING knack for predicting when a team will have a letdown! Stick with our resident gambling experts sports betting tips all season long!
Are the Lakers ready to turn the team over to Dwight Howard?
Is Kobe Bryant, who succeeded in banishing Shaquille O’Neal from Los Angeles because Shaq was claiming too much of the spotlight, willing to play understudy to Howard when Bryant returns from his Achilles injury?
Let’s see. There’s the Heat and all that firepower.
And San Antonio, with all that experience.
Don’t forget the Thunder. Any team with Durant and Westbrook can do some damage.
All in all, it’s been one heck of a year for the Denver Nuggets, who need only a victory in one of their final two regular season games (tonight in Milwaukee or home on Wednesday against the lowly Phoenix Suns) to clinch home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
This one looked pretty juicy when the schedule came out last summer, but since the coach of just about every NBA playoff team has started channeling Gregg Popovich and has been sitting out stars to keep them fresh for the playoffs, Boston at Miami now has the look and feel of a September baseball game littered with minor league call-ups.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are holding a slight advantage over San Antonio as they enter the final week of the season dead spanking even at 57-21.
The Knicks are either a powerhouse team just starting to come in to its own and ready to obliterate inferior competition in the first two rounds of the playoffs before giving Miami all it can handle in the Eastern Conference finals.
With baseball season rolling, the Bruins near the top of the standings and Patriots talk helping fill what’s left of the sports talk vacuum, the Celtics have taken a back seat in Boston.
Denver’s 15-game winning streak came to an end 2½ weeks ago, and since that unexpected defeat in New Orleans the Nuggets have been dealing with injuries to their two key players.
It was always something with John Wall. Unrealistic expectations. Clowns for teammates. Lack of coaching. Injuries. Something. Now the kid is finally showing what he can do.
If you bought tickets for this game a long time ago, well you and your entourage are the losers here. Because other than providing an opportunity for players to pad their stats, this game doesn’t mean a heck of a lot.
Late last May it looked like the Indiana Pacers were really on to something. They had the Miami Heat in a bit of a box, up 2-1 in their second-round playoff series, with Game 4 at home.
Can this marriage be saved?
Can Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard actually pull things together over the final two weeks to get the Lakers into the playoffs and make things interesting for either the Spurs or Thunder in the first round?
Signs are pointing toward the affirmative.
Memphis Grizzlies (51-24) at Los Angeles Lakers (39-36)
Staples Center, Los Angeles
10:30 p.m. EST
Bryant has shaken off the effects of that sprained ankle and has been playing huge minutes in the Lakers’ push to hold off Utah for the 8th and final Western Conferece playoff slot. Mike D’Antoni kept KB on the court for all but 23 seconds in a win over Sacramento, and Bryant logged more than 47 in Tuesday’s victory over Dallas.
And Howard has stopped goofing off and now has double-digits in rebounds 21 straight games – and 14 consecutive double-doubles.
Has the drama which dominated the Lakers’ season through February finally ended at the Staples Center? Has LA finally figured out that the way to win games is to actually play hard and put aside petty jealousies?
[ad-6571516]
Looks like it.
But even if the Lakers have their waste product together for the final push, there are no guarantees. Bryant points out that while the remainder of the schedule includes 6 of the final 7 at the Staples Center, there are some toughies in there – including tonight’s game against a Memphis Grizzlies club that has its own fight on its hands and is trying to finish strong enough to steal the No. 3 playoff seed in the Western Conference.
Besides the Grizzlies, LA has home games against the Clippers, Hornets, Warriors, Spurs and Rockets. Utah’s schedule is a bit softer, but the Jazz (a half-game behind the Lakers) have a 3-3 home/road split, starting with the Hornets tonight in Salt Lake City.
“We have a tougher schedule but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Bryant said when asked about Jazz. “If you want to get to the playoffs and expect to make some noise, you have to beat playoff teams.”
And that would start tonight against the Grizzlies in a game which could turn on the play of point guards Steve Nash and Mike Conley.
Nash is expected to return after missing one game with a hamstring issue, and will be put to the test.
Did beating Miami and ending the Heat’s 27-game winning streak take too much out of the Chicago Bulls?
The NBA is no country for old men. All around the league 30-plus veterans are limping as they approach the finish line and a playoff season that provides decent rest between games (thanks, TV).
Eight games left in the regular season and the Denver Nuggets are pretty much fat and happy as they ready for the playoffs.
It’s nut-crunching time in the Association, where the furniture is being re-arranged as playoff position is in the process of being settled deep in the shadows and the NCAA Tournament gets most of the attention.
