The Dallas Mavericks made some moves to boost their sportsbook odds (betus reviews) before the trade deadline, and they did it with the Los Angeles Lakers in mind because to be the champs, you have to beat the champs. The Mavericks will host the Lakers on Wednesday night, but the Lakers have had their way in Dallas lately.

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Dallas Mavericks odds – Wednesday, February 24, 9:00 PM ET

This will be the second half of a back-to-back for the Lakers, who are 10-3 in the second half of back-to-backs this season. They play in Memphis on Tuesday, and they’re hoping that Kobe Bryant will be available to play, and that’s pretty likely when you consider how many injuries it took just to get Bryant to sit for five games, which also stretched around the All-Star break. The Lakers went 4-1 in the five games that Bryant sat, losing only a one-point game against Boston at home, and that has to be encouraging to Bryant and coach Phil Jackson. Bryant is still the leader of the offense, but maybe this will give him some more confidence in his teammates.

The Mavericks are hoping that the acquisitions of Caron Butler (whom Bryant lobbied to get here a couple of years ago) and Brendan Haywood from Washington for Josh Howard will improve their sportsbook odds, but we know for sure it’ll improve their locker room as Howard was immature and reportedly sat out games with hangovers. Jason Kidd now has a whole slew of weapons in Butler, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry coming off the bench, but the pickup of Haywood may be more important to the Mavs’ chances. Erick Dampier is out for at least a month with a finger injury, and you probably couldn’t get a better replacement for Dampier as Haywood is very similar, and possibly better. He’s long, can rebound and block shots, and that will definitely help against the Lakers’ trio of Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.

The Mavericks should be the favorites at home, as they are 17-9 at American Airlines Center prior to Monday’s visit from Indiana. Bryant has averaged just 15.0 points in three meetings with Dallas, but two of those have resulted in wins. Butler gives the Mavericks a backup option if Nowitzki is getting extra attention. The Mavericks have lost three in a row at home to the Lakers, who were 16-9 on the road ahead of their game in Memphis on Tuesday, but they’ll probably still be trying to work Bryant into the lineup. Watch out for the Mavericks’ defense, as they hadn’t allowed more than 100 points since getting Haywood from Washington.

NBA betting pick: Dallas

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Sports betting players will be treated to a matchup of offense against defense on Thursday night when the Los Angeles Lakers will host the Chicago Bulls in the final game of TNT’s televised triple-header. Can the Bulls slow down Kobe Bryant and company?

Bulls vs Lakers odds – Thursday, November 19, 10:30 PM ET

The Bulls have won two in a row, although that probably won’t be enough to make them NBA betting favorites on the West Coast. They’re having some troubles scoring with only one 100-point game so far this year, but their defense is stellar as the Bulls are sixth in points allowed. The Bulls were hurt by an early-season injury to Derrick Rose, who is the key to their NBA betting odds, but John Salmons and Taj Gibson have been coming on as of late as well. Rose averaged 25.0 points in two games against the Lakers last year.

Bryant answered any questions about a groin problem with a 40-point performance in the Lakers’ 106-93 win over Detroit. This will be the third of four straight home games for the Lakers, who recently found that they’ll be without Luke Walton for at least six weeks with a pinched nerve. Still, the Lakers have enough parts to make up for him, and Ron Artest is getting more used to the triangle offense, so look for his production to go up. Bryant averaged 24.5 points in two games against the Bulls, while the injured Pau Gasol actually led the way with 28.5 points.

Sportsbook odds should have the Lakers as an NBA betting favorite in this contest, and they’ve won six of their last seven against the Bulls. Last year’s games were both high-scoring affairs, but the Bulls may want to avoid that approach this time out or it will be a blowout. They’ll need a big game from Rose and Salmons, who will be closely watched by Artest. Andrew Bynum also only played in one of the two games against the Bulls last year, and he is averaging 20.3 points and 11.8 boards this year, and he should be a major factor here.

Internet betting pick: Los Angeles Lakers

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Let me introduce myself, this way you guys can familiarize yourselves with me and my writing. My name is Steve Salamone and I’m from Egg Harbor Township, NJ. Usually, no one has any idea where that is, so I just tell people that I live 15 minutes away from Atlantic City, and they’re like, “Oh OK”.

I love basketball, and have played my whole life, during high school and junior college, and still do during my spare time. As you can tell, this is my first, of what I hope will be many, blog. I would to thank Eric for giving me a forum to discuss, what I think is, the greatest game in the world. I’m sure at times I’ll discuss football or baseball, but for the most part it will be basketball, and mostly about the Lakers, as I’m a diehard Laker fan, and have been since the age of 5. But, since it’s the off season, I’m going to spread it out a little bit and just tackle a couple subjects.

(Disclaimer I wrote the following paragraph about a month ago believe it or not)

First off, we have to talk about Michael Vick….like no… we really do. I’m not going to talk much, but we have to hit it. I hate the Eagles, HATE them, but there are some things that I understand and things that I don’t. What I get is the fact that Michael Vick gives the Eagles options (yada, yada, yada). But here’s my thing, Donovan McNabb couldn’t handle TO, just forget all about the contract stuff and everything, and just look at their relationship. It was horrible towards the end!

Now in comes Michael Vick, and now, whether or not anyone will admit it, he’s working to get Mcnabb’s job. Although, Vick might be a year away, it’s lingering, especially when McNabb inevitably goes down with his annual injury. When Vick takes his job, we’ll really see some fireworks. On the other hand, I don’t see how this can work, as far as the dog fighting. I own two awesome dogs, and I was even rooting for my Dolphins to sign him over. So in my point of view, when something is over, it’s over. He was locked up for two years, which, believe me, is a long time and he lost a ton of money. I think he knows what he did is wrong, and has learned from it. I mean, I’ve always liked Vick, just not his incriminating habits, and I’m really rooting for him to do well (just not the Eagles).

Ahh now the N.B.A.. All the Artest stuff has been discussed to death, it’s not even worth it to do a power ranking thing. Yet, as much as I would love to do one, I’ll just wait until the season rolls around. What I do want to talk about is the international stuff. It’s getting bad for the N.B.A.. Look at the names that have left in the last few years: Josh Childress, Von Wafer, and Linus Kleiza. O.K., to most of you these are no name guys, but to people who follow the N.B.A closely, these are big blows to a bench.

Now most of you are probably thinking that they can be easily be replaced, which they could be, but then you would be missing the point. We’ll just look at Linus Kleiza because that’s the information I have in front of me at the moment. So, Kleiza got a 12.2 million dollar deal for 2 years. This is a guy who went to high school and college in America, and has the potential to put up a lot of points in a game, in which he has already proven. There were four teams offering him money, but they were offering him the maximum they were allowed, which is something like 5.5 million. In the N.B.A., the cap has been declining on a yearly basis, in which the projections for next year are handcuffing the Knicks, who 2 or 3 years ago would have been able to afford two max contracts, and now are projected to fit one.

In addition to that, the Olympiakos, the European basketball team, just aren’t playing on the same field as the N.B.A., and it’s not fair to these teams that have to compete with these international powerhouses. What’s going to happen when the N.B.A. golden boy Lebronze, as I like to call him, leaves. Let’s not even talk about LeBron, let’s look at guys like Brandon Roy and Danny Granger. It’s going to happen eventually when a star leave and teams aren’t going to be able to do anythng and when that happens it’s going to be awful.

There’s also a good chance for a lockout (hopefully Derek Fisher takes care of it.) Now, I see two solutions for this, and they’re both pretty improbable. The first one, which I keep hearing, is joining International Division teams from Europe into the N.B.A.. That has to be so far off that it’s not even in the realm of possibility. The other is having no salary cap. Some of you, who are unfamiliar with all the salary cap rules, would probably think it’s a good idea, but for someone like me who knows the rules would hate to see it go anywhere. Something needs to be done, and something needs to be done before it gets any worse.

That’s all for now, thank-you, and keep reading my blogs! If you guys want to throw out some suggestions for future blogs, be my guest, as I would love some feedback, it’s always fun.

- Steve

This is a close friend of mine who’s a pretty good D.J. and you guys need to check his stuff out. http://1djkero.blogspot.com/

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