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Miami Heat vs. Boston Celtics Monday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Heat vs Celtics NBA Handicapping

Because the talent divide in the NBA is so great, long winning streaks are possible. Talent almost always wins out, and on occasion a superstar call in the finals seconds assures that the underdog won’t be able to pull off an upset.

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L.A. Lakers vs. Indiana Pacers Friday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Lakers vs Pacers NBA Handicapping

Nut-cracking time for Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. The same guy who several weeks ago was so critical of Dwight Howard’s unwillingness to play with pain now finds himself in the same (uncomfortable) spot.

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N.Y. Knicks vs. Portland Trail Blazers Thursday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Knicks vs Blazers NBA Handicapping

Now what?

Wasn’t that long ago that the Knicks were riding high, the Garden rocking again. Close your eyes, listen to the crowd noise and you could swear that it was Walt Frazier and Willis Reed out there on the court again.

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Dallas Mavericks vs. San Antonio Spurs Thursday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Mavs vs Spurs NBA Handicapping

Gregg Popovich has been around the block enough times to know all about the ups and downs of an NBA season. But even Pops must be a puzzled, and maybe even a little frustrated, by his team’s play since Tony Parker went down with an ankle injury on the first day of the month.

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Memphis Grizzlies vs. L.A. Clippers Wednesday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Grizzlies vs Clippers NBA Handicapping

It doesn’t have quite the panache of a game between the Heat and Thunder, but if tonight’s matchup between the Grizzlies and Clippers at Staples Center in Los Angeles were a boxing match, it would be a very interesting undercard battle.

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Atlanta Hawks vs. Miami Heat Tuesday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Hawks vs Heat NBA Handicapping

It’s time for the Atlanta Hawks to start to take stock in this season and figure out just who they are and how they want to finish the year.

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Cappers Picks NBA Power Rankings – March 11th, 2013

Larry’s NBA Power Ratings

Does winning help LeBron James rehabilitate his image? Do you like him now that his team has figured it out and is favored to win its second consecutive championship?

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OKC Thunder vs. San Antonio Spurs Monday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Thunder vs Spurs NBA Handicapping

The Thunder and Spurs each have 18 games left after’s tonight’s battle in San Antonio, so this one hardly means curtains for the loser as the teams maneuver for the best record in the Western Conference and the right to home-court advantage in any upcoming playoff series.

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OKC Thunder vs. N.Y. Knicks Cappers TNT NBA Preview & Free Pick

Thunder vs Knicks NBA Handicapping

Does anybody have to be told exactly what it would mean to the Knicks’ chances of a deep playoff run if Carmelo Anthony isn’t at 100 percent about five weeks from now?

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Sports

L.A. Clippers vs. Denver Nuggets Cappers TNT NBA Preview & Free Pick

Clippers vs Nuggets NBA Handicapping

Props to Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro, who knew what he would be facing tonight when LA took the court against the Bucks last night.

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Chicago Bulls vs. San Antonio Spurs Wednesday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Bulls vs Spurs NBA Handicapping

Here’s what we know about the Eastern Conference playoffs, which don’t get under way until the middle of April:

1. The Heat will be the top seed.

Chicago Bulls (34-26) at San Antonio Spurs (47-14)
Wednesday, March 6
AT&T Center, San Antonio
9 p.m. EST
Spread – Spurs -7.5 at BOVADA
O/U – 191.5

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2. The Pacers and Knicks will be 2-3, or 3-2.
3. The other five teams in the mix will be Brooklyn, Atlanta, Boston, Milwaukee and Chicago, in some order that probably won’t be determined until the last musket is fired.

Everyone wants to avoid the 8th seed and a first-round elimination date with the Heat, a thought which until recently never crossed the minds of fans in Chicago.

But the way the Bulls have been playing recently, a free fall to the bottom of the playoff heap looks entirely possible.

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Chicago’s started innocently enough with a head-scratching loss to the Wizards in late January, a defeat which kicked off an 8-10 stretch which has removed the Bulls from the conference elite and raised two key questions: When is Derrick Rose coming back, and is Tom Thibodeau wearing out his starters?

Rose has finally been sighted on the Bulls’ bench, albeit in street clothes. “It’s just the next step,” said Thibodeau of Rose’s presence during games. “He may not even be out there all the time.

If he wants to come out, great. If he doesn’t, that’s fine, too. Again, his focus has to be on the rehab.

The team has to focus on our improvement and our next game. So at some point he’ll be ready to go.” [ad-6571516]

Rose has made it clear that he’s not coming back until he feels he’s 100 percent good to go, and since the league’s best offensive PG isn’t talking much, no one knows when that will be.

Until that question is answered, focus in Chicago is on the team’s recent struggles.

The bump in the road has included a 71-69 loss in Boston which may have been one of the worst games in the history of the NBA and a defeat at home to the Cavaliers.

Thibodeau, considered on the league’s top coaches, is starting to take a little heat for keeping his bigs on the floor for huge minutes. Luol Deng played 44 minutes in a recent game against Brooklyn, and Joakim Noah played more than 40 four times in the last 10 games, including 45 against the 76ers.

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Would have been an interesting late-season PG battle between Rose and Tony Parker. Parker’s absence was hardly noticed in SA’s 114-75 victory over the Pistons, who appear to have officially started playing out the string.

Tonight will be a bigger test as Chicago’s pressure defense and tightened rotation is tested by the Spurs’ deep bench.

Expecting same-old, same-old here with the Spurs getting it done sans Parker.

Totals players should be aware that the Bulls have scored in triple digits only once in the last month, and the Spurs might take a few quarters to figure things out in their first decent test without Parker.

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Cappers Picks NBA Power Rankings – March 5th, 2013

Larry’s NBA Power Ratings

How about a little love for the Denver Nuggets?

Burdened with a road-heavy early-season schedule, Denver stumbled out of the blocks before getting things together. Now, in the second half of the season the Nuggets have hit their stride – 4 straight wins and 14 victories in an 18-game span that is noted for bookend victories over Oklahoma City.

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L.A. Lakers vs. OKC Thunder Tuesday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Lakers vs Thunder NBA Handicapping

The Lakers have finally found some balance – in the NBA standings anyway. For the first time since December (15-15), they find themselves with as many wins (30) as losses.

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Miami Heat vs. Minnesota Timberwolves Wednesday NBA Preview & Free Pick

Heat vs Timberwolves NBA Handicapping

Miami’s incredible late-season run is an obvious message to the rest of the Eastern Conference that there is not much that can be done to prevent the Heat from heading to the NBA Finals again.

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Philadelphia 76ers vs. Chicago Bulls Free Pick & Preview

Philadelphia 76ers (22-33) at Chicago Bulls (32-25)

Thursday, Feb. 28
United Center, Chicago
8 p.m. EST (TNT)
Spread – Bulls -7
Total – 179

Pressure is starting to build in Chicago, where the Bulls’ recent downturn has only intensified the concern about when/if Derrick Rose will return to the lineup. Fans are starting to wonder if that ACL/MCL tear will cost the teams two shots at a title (2012 and 2013). And if he even comes back now, will he be able to get into good-enough game shape to give Chicago a chance to make a deep playoff run?

The team has said that when Rose returns will be up to one person – Derrick Rose. Which conveniently takes all the heat off the team’s medical staff and coaching staff, and puts the onus squarely on a kid who seems obviously conflicted about the whole thing.

Rose is playing 5-on-5 right now, and one (unnamed) teammate has been quoted as saying to the effect that while the point guard’s knee looks fine, the former MVP just doesn’t seem mentally ready to jump back into the NBA pool and all that returning to the lineup entails.

It hasn’t helped that the month of February has been less than kind to the surviving Bulls. A difficult 10-game stretch has left the team with lots of black and blues. There have been losses to tough teams (San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Indiana, Denver and Miami) and an average team (Boston).

But none of the defeats was as bad as the most recent one – a 101-98 decision to the Cavaliers. At home. And with the Cavs missing PG Kyrie Irving. It was a game the Bulls needed badly to get things back on track. But they spit the bit, and now they head into the last game of the month on a 3-10 skid that has dropped them to the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference.

With upcoming games at Indiana and San Antonio (who are combined 46-8 at home) followed by a West Coast road trip, the Bulls need tonight’s game badly.

While the return of the mercurial Rose has Bulls fans scratching their heads, the 76ers got some rare good news recently when Andrew Bynum started scrimmaging. Philly dumped Andre Iguodala to get Bynum, but the big guy hasn’t played a minute for the Sixers in a season-long rehab of his ailing knee. But even with Bynum practicing, note that he is a free agent on July 1 and is loath to risk an injury that could cost him a big contract.

THE PICK – The O/U (179) is ridiculously low because neither team has been able to generate any kind of consistent offense of late.

Chicago failed to even break 70 in two of its losses in the recent skid, and the 76ers haven’t broken 90 only once and are in the midst of a 6-game losing streak. With the game likely being a taffy pull, the Bulls will be hard-pressed to cover 7.

Philadelphia +7 in this one.

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Minnesota TimberWolves vs. LA Lakers Preview + Free Gambling Pick

Minnesota Timberwolves (20-34) at Los Angeles Lakers (28-30)

Thursday, Feb. 28
Staples Center, Los Angeles
10:30 p.m. EST (TNT)

First, the good news.

Ricky Rubio’s knee looks fine. He’s cutting, sprinting, running backwards, defending – all the things that everyone was concerned about when he came back from the ACL tear.

And power forward Derrick Williams has finally started to show some of the talent that caused the Minnesota Timberwolves to spend the second overall draft pick on him a few years back.
Now the bad news.

Just about everything else.

The Timberwolves’ season is circling the drain. Again. Hopes of being anything more than another game on everyone else’s schedule left town when All-Star forward Kevin Love went down with a broken hand after playing only 18 games. Love has started to rehab and may be back in a few weeks, but challenging for a playoff spot has been a pipedream for a while now.

With Love out of the photo for now, coach Rick Adelman is trying to hold things together, but a string of recent close losses has everyone frustrated. On Feb. 13 the Wolves held Utah to 10 points in the first period but couldn’t hang on at home and lost by 4. Last weekend they had the Warriors by the short hairs but couldn’t close at home, blowing a late lead and losing by 1. And on Tuesday night a spate of late turnovers led to a 1-point overtime loss to the Suns in Phoenix in a game that wasted a solid 21/12 game from the emerging Williams.

Tonight’s game against the Lakers at the Staples Center will be more than a tough test for the Wolves. The Lakers are fighting a shrinking NBA calendar as they grasp and claw for every win that could enable them to avoid the embarrassment of a trip to the Draft Lottery, and beating the have-nots of the league like the Timberwolves is an absolute priority. The Lakers have 5 home games left against sub.-500 teams, and they pretty much need to run the table in those games, starting with the T-Wolves tonight.

That the Lakers are this close (3 games out) to a playoff berth is due to a healthy 8-wins-in-12-games spurt. The offense has shown signs of life, putting up more than 100 points five straight times, and even Dwight Howard has shown signs of emerging from his cave after a long winter’s nap, averaging 14 rebounds a game over the last four.

THE PICK – It’s not too hard to expect Kobe & Co. mobilize for one last run at the final Western Conference playoff slot, but they absolutely have to take care of business at home because 10 of their 15 games in March will be on the road, where they have lost just two 2 of every 3 games this season (10-19). The Wolves are bit worn down, so the Lakers figure to take care of business in tonight’s TNT nightcap.

LOS ANGELES 113, MINNESOTA 98.