NBA Playoff Betting A Disaster For Home Teams In Game Ones

Playoff teams battle all season long stressing the importance of gaining the best seed possible and home court advantage in a first round playoff series. Now that all of the game ones in this years first round of the playoffs are complete, four teams have already given away that advantage.

The Boston Celtics are the defending NBA champions. They received bad news before their first round series with Chicago when they learned that star forward Kevin Garnett will not be playing at least in the first round. After hearing the news, they subsequently went out and lost the first game and home court advantage to the Bulls.

San Antonio was in a similar situation in the Western Conference. They are without Manu Ginobili for the entire playoffs, and they have given home court advantage away to the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks were one of the best teams in the West in the second half of the season.

Many people thought that the Portland Trailblazers would be the team that had the best chance of beating the Los Angeles Lakers in the West. The two would meet in the second round should they both win, but the Trailblazers gave away their home court advantage to Houston after game one of that series.

In the East, Orlando had themselves a double digit lead for most of the second half, until the 76ers decided to make an incredible run. Philadelphia ended up hitting a last second shot to go up 1-0 in that series. The 76ers now do not have to win another game on the road to advance to the next round.

Although four teams did give away home court, there were another four who held serve in game one. Atlanta throttled Miami and held Dwyane Wade to only nineteen points. Denver, the number two seed in the West, handily defeated the Hornets, a team that was in the conference finals last year.

The two favorites to play for the title this post season, Los Angeles and Cleveland, made easy work of their opponents in their series openers. The Lakers beat the Jazz, and Cleveland beat the Pistons.

April 21, 2009
Posted By Vincent Tapoglia III
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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