Thursday NBA Locks

Well it's Thursday. The one obstacle between you and that sweet, sweet $9 strawberry daiquri at Applebee's on Friday night. Let's face it, Mondays suck, but Thursdays are just boring. Well today, we can at least try to make the last part of Thursday speed up by investing heavily in some NBA locks!

San Antonio Spurs at Chicago Bulls (+6) (O 198.5)

This morning on ESPN Radio, the topic "Is Thibs on the hot seat?!" came up and I nearly crashed the shit out of my car. No, Thibs is not and will not be on the "hot seat" seeing as he is the second best coach in the NBA. The Bulls are in the running for the 2 seed out East, and have one of the deepest rosters in the NBA. They have struggled for all of a week, so let's not lose out shit just yet. I don't believe that D Rose will return to MVP form, nor do I think he makes it 60 games this year. What I do know is that he is still a dynamic point guard that scares opposing defenses. The problem is, between Rose and Noah's injuries, the lack of continuity and familiarity has really shown this year for the Bulls. Not to mention, Joakim has to play a ton of power forward this year now that Pau Gasol is playing center. These adjustments have landed the Bulls once vaunted defense squarely in the middle of the pack defensively. Is this an issue? Nope! Chi Town might not have the D they once had (heh), but that lack of D (heh) can easily be made up for by their much improved offense. With Rose playing most games, Jimmy Butler turning into Luol Deng 2.0 and Noah/Pau/Taj down low, the Bulls can get buckets with everyone in the league. Until they make that adjustment, you have to bet against them. Noah is out with an ankle injury tonight, so expect Timmy Duncan to punish Pau and lil' Taj while Rose is forced to take jumper after jumper (Tip: he can't shoot jumpers). The Spurs should kill tonight, so take the over as well.

Utah Jazz (+8) at Milwaukee Bucks (Over 185)

This might be the worst pick of the day. Both these teams are pretty bad, and neither can score efficiently. I'm basically hoping that Enes Kanter goes off on the Bucks, and maybe Gordon Hayward scores 25. The Jazz run at the second highest pace in the NBA (that was shocking to me), but they are just terrible at scoring! It's like they get the ball down the court and take terrible shots immediately. The Bucks don't play a particularly fast pace, but they do have young dudes that can rebound and take off with the ball, so by virtue of pace and youth, I'm taking the over. The Jazz should be able to keep it close seeing as they actually have some experience, but damn, this is a bad pick.

Boston Celtics @ Portland Trail Blazers (-8)

This is a tough call because PDX almost got smoked by the Suns last night. Bledsoe went OFF as did Isaiah Thomas. Aldridge may be out for Blaze City, but I still like them at home. The Celtics really aren't a threat to any team in the West, so I think Dame, Batum and Matthews kill it tonight and keep their insane home record intact.