After missing last week\u2019s regular NBA weekly review due to illness, (who\u2019s not sick right now, eh?), you\u2019re NBA-lovin\u2019 and NBA-livin\u2019, handicapping homeboy, E\u2019 Dubya\u2019 is back this week to set the record straight on who\u2019s hot, who\u2019s not \u2013 and more importantly, who\u2019s going to cash in more often than not for my beloved BetUS NBA sports betting buddies. So, with the NBA\u2019s annual all-star break swiftly approaching, let\u2019s get down to business, started with the Eastern Conference. The defending-champion Boston Celtics have won a whopping 11 consecutive games and have reestablished themselves as the odds-on-favorite, best team in the league while gone an impressive 4-1 ATS in their last five. Bottom line \u2013 it\u2019s going to take a helluva\u2019 team to knock the C\u2019s off in the Eastern Conference this season \u2013 and only one team in my estimation, ha a legitimate shot. Of course, that team would be the Cleveland Cavaliers, (no disrespect Orlando). Cleveland has won two straight and seven of its last 10 overall and have looked every almost every bit as good as Boston for the most part this season. I love the Orlando Magic\u2019s talented roster, I just don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to be able to beat either Cleveland or Boston with its lackadaisical brand of defense. Still, Orlando has gone an impressive 8- in its L\/10 while winning each of its last three games. One team I\u2019d start to watch out for is the Philadelphia 76ers who are starting to get their act together, going an impressive 7-3 in theirL\/10 after getting off to a very poor start this season. The New York Knicks have won three straight and seven of its L\/10 but are so defensively-challenged, they won\u2019t have a legitimate shot at surpassing the elite teams in the eastern Conference any time soon. Joe Dumars pulled off the worst acquisition of the season by getting rid of elite floor general and big-game shot-maker Chauncey Billups for me-first gunner Allen Iverson \u2013 and the Pistons are paying for it as they are no longer an elite team in the East. (Serves them right too as Dumars should have known better). I\u2019m disappointed in the Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks and particularly, the Atlanta Hawks. I expect more out of all three teams this season and haven\u2019t seen it happen. The Hawks look like world-beaters against the Boston Celtics but against everyone else, they tend to come with a half-hearted effort more often than not. <\/a> Last but certainly not least in the Eastern Conference is another team I\u2019d watch very closely over the second half of the regular season \u2013 the Charlotte Bobcats. Hall of Fame head coach Larry Brown\u2019s new-look, veteran-laden roster has played stupendous basketball in going 6-4 in their last 10 games and looks like they\u2019re going to play their hearts out for Brown for the remainder of the regular season. In the Western Conference, it\u2019s still all about the Los Angeles Lakers, who have gone a solid 7-3 in their L\/10. The recent loss of young center Andre Bynum could hurt them a bit, but I wouldn\u2019t count on it very much as long as a certain guy named Kobe Bryant still leads L.A. At this point, the only team the Lakers seem to be getting any real competition from for the Western Conference title is the San Antonio Spurs who have gone an impressive 8-2 ATS in their L\/10. Say what you like about the Lakers, I say the Spurs are going to be right there at the end with a shot to advance to the Finals. With so much space in this article dedicated to the Eastern Conference this week, I\u2019ll just briefly add that every other Western Conference title contender, (Denver, New Orleans, Phoenix, Houston, Utah, Portland and Dallas) has some kind of serious flaw at this point that will, not only keep them from beating the Lakers, but also the defensive-minded, non-nonsense Spurs. Portland has heated up nicely, going a solid 7-3 in their L\/10 while the Nuggets, Jazz and Rockets are all a respectable 6-4 SU in their L\/10. The Suns, (frauds) are just 3-7 SU in their L\/10 and have a plethora of problems while the Mavericks, (another fraud) have improved their play a bit lately, but have still managed to go just 5-5 SU in their L\/10. Check out the BetUS Locker Room each and every day to get all the latest NBA team wagering information form the best handicappers and sports wagering analysts in the online sports wagering industry.<\/p>\n With another week of NBA basketball now a thing of the past – and the 2008-09 NBA regular season moving into its fourteenth week it is time to take a look back…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1979,1597,3938,3939,4839,5169,5633,744,4838,1599,1595,3942,747,3940,748,3937,4840,4841,5632],"class_list":["post-7986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nba","tag-basketball-betting","tag-basketball-handicapping","tag-basketball-odds","tag-bet-on-basketball","tag-betting-review","tag-handicapping-analysis","tag-handicapping-review","tag-nba-betting","tag-nba-betting-weekly-review","tag-nba-free-picks","tag-nba-gambling","tag-nba-handicapping","tag-nba-lines","tag-nba-money-lines","tag-nba-news","tag-nba-point-spreads","tag-nba-sports-book","tag-nba-tips","tag-weekly-nba-basketball-power-rankings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7986"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103658,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7986\/revisions\/103658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Want to bet on NBA Hoops? Check out\u00a0the BetUS Sportsbook to get all the latest and most up-to-date, bettor-friendly NBA Odds anywhere.<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"