Are you following the NBA down the stretch? We already live in an era where guys miss games all the time. You know, it’s the whole “load management” thing and/or some minor “injury” that miraculously appears in the 2nd of a back to back game on the schedule. It’s pathetic. And now, these last few games of the season… you don’t even recognize the lineups out there. I guess I understand this for teams whose fate is already decided, like the Bulls for example. Before their Friday night game against the Mavs, we knew the Bulls would be rolling in as the #10 seed in the East; I’ve already talked about how much of a joke THAT is. Zach, DD, Pat Bev would all be missing this game. The thing that I don’t get is that the Mavs sat Kyrie; not only that, they only played Luke part of the game… in a MUST win situation?!?! Their playoff lives had not been decided, so… they decided it for themselves, and… the decision was to MISS the playoffs. NBA WTF?!?!
All the guys in and out of the lineup all year is flat out ridiculous, yet this is not going to change. Sure, the NBA put something in place where you will need to play a minimum number of games going forward to qualify for the individual season awards, yet I believe you can still miss 20% of the games; I don’t think there is an easy solution there, unless you pro-rate guys’ contracts based on games played. Yeah, I think THAT would do it. But the NBA isn’t going there. Why? Besides the players’ union never going for it, the ambiguity that is brought to games on a daily basis because of this, is GREAT for business. The business I refer to: Papa Vegas’ family business. Yeah, it makes betting on the NBA crazy; the point spread swings can be drastic depending on how the starting lineups look night in, night out. So yeah, forget about the kid that is looking forward to seeing that star player from the visiting team, and even that kid who is only able to attend one home game to see their home team play… it’s about the individual player, and messing with people throwing money on each and every game. Welcome.
I just find it amazing that the Mavs decided to “sit this one out”. Like I said, if your fate has been decided, I get this philosophy in the last couple games in the season; good luck betting on those games. You have to know a team’s depth, and hope the playground game goes your way. But why did the Mavs, with Luka and newly acquired Kyrie, not think that punching their ticket to the playoffs, giving themselves a chance in the playoffs, was something they wanted… They’d rather bench them and miss the playoffs?!?! OK, maybe they get a few balls in the draft lottery, but man… for a team with one of the best players in the league and another guy who thinks he is, it’s surprising that they wouldn’t want to give themselves a shot. I’m filing this under the “pathetic” category.
So Friday night’s Bulls game against the Mavs was interesting to say the least. The Bulls sitting all their guys, the Mavs sitting theirs… it came down to the fact that the Mavs wanted to lose which influenced my in-game ML play on the Bulls, which yeah, I cashed; take that Papa Vegas! Haha… yeah, there’s always some amount of luck necessary to be on the right side of a game, even more so with the way the NBA is today, especially down the stretch. I’ll wait for the playoffs thank you. Will guys play in each of those games? The NBA does spread these games out as much as possible… Wednesday night in Toronto is the Bulls’ assignment. Good luck to us; Go Bulls!
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