Roundball Roundup

Immediately after my last post, I regretted writing it. Confidence leads to overconfidence which leads to a state of misery. That's what happened after the Bucks beat a flat LAL team, Flip Saunders was rumored for the U of Minn head coach position and Denger cemented his status as the Bulls leading scorer. With that said, I'm very happy with my picks to-date. My only regret is not placing more on the Bodog props that I considered - I placed many of these for $5 solely to have action. These include Shaq not playing 65 games, Randolph as Por's leading scorer, ZaZa as the Hawks leading rebounder, Tinsley to play 55, Brand under 24.7 points and a multitude of others.That's missing money right there. Let's focus on the larger action: Pistons look great and are on an 8-game winning streak, trailing only Orlando in the East - I've got Orl over for 1 unit. But I have Cleveland over and Hawks under for 1 unit each, and both look terrible. My cousin suggested all 3, I blame him for any losses. I also have Memphis under 38 for 2 units - that's a net gain of 0.7 units in all (excluding Detroit which is a Flip Saunder bet for several more units). NOK under 40.5 was my cousin's other pick and I placed 3.75 units on it - I also liked the pick. NOK began the season 8-3 but has now lost 5 straight, several to bad teams. Peja's injury has really hurt them - he's missed the last 3 with back spasms - and there's no timetable for his return, thankfully. This one will likely be decided in the final week of the season.SA continues to struggle - struggle being defined as a 12-5 record. Last year, they began the season 19-5. Finley is terrible (32%) and Manny has missed several games with a back strain. This one frustrates me as this team is tired, old and unmotivated. And also one of the best in the league. The 7.35 units is a bit important to me. The Bucks are currently 5-10 and well on their way to 5-11 as they're down 10 to GSW with 8 to go. Charlie V is still out to my advantage. But Milwaukee has played better recently which concerns me. And 10 of their 16 games have been on the road. Note that Chicago was 3-9 to open the season, hurt by bad road performance. Hopefully, Milw loses tonight (now down 6, Mo has shot 1-15), then to Utah to close the trip. But their schedule gets a lot better during the next 10 games. Update: Milw now tied. Jesus). This is stressful. More to follow later on lessons I've learned and plans for next year. - farfel