Matchup: NBA All-Star Game – East vs. West (2/14)

Matchup: NBA All-Star Game – East vs. West (2/14)
Date/Time: Sunday, February 14 – 8:30 PM ET
Site: Air Canada Centre – Toronto
TV Coverage: TNT

NBA All-Star Lines from BetAnySports

(with reduced juice)

Pointspread: West -6 (-103) / East +6 (-107)
Total: Over 321 points -103 / Under 321 points -107

by Charles Jay

Will this NBA All-Star Game be all about Kobe Bryant? That seems to be the sentiment as the East and West line up for this “classic,” which usually turns out to be nothing more than a sloppy schoolyard game.

Bryant, of course, is retiring at the end of this NBA season, and while on this weekend Peyton Manning’s name is being dragged through the mud about some sexual prank that took place more than 20 years ago, we are not hearing a lot about Kobe’s alleged rape from 2003. Of course we aren’t. He is getting a lot of that “feel-good” from NBA bettors as well, as they have made him a +120 favorite to win the game’s MVP award.

What actually might be more appetizing is the other half of the two-way play at BetAnySports, where they have offered a -160 price that Bryant WON’T win the MVP. Anyone who has followed the Lakers this season is aware of several things – one of them is that they are going nowhere in the standings, and they more or less conceded that they are going to be lousy as they prepare to open up a lot of cap space and play for draft picks. In turn, that means this season is about Kobe’s “farewell tour,” which is roughly akin to Derek Jeter’s farewell with the New York Yankees in 2014, which served as a major distraction. The difference is that we don’t see anybody trying to sell Kobe’s sweaty underwear or socks.

So what does that mean as it pertains to the All-Star Game? Well, the Lakers would like to preserve Bryant for the rest of the “stretch run” of this farewell tour, because it means ticket sales and a whole lot more. They can’t afford him getting injured in such a way that it would put him on the shelf for the rest of the season. And the last thing they want is for him to get injured in an All-Star Game, which is, when it comes down to it, an exhibition.

If BetAnySports patrons have been paying attention as he pulled into Toronto, he’s been complaining about all the aches and pains he has, and they are real. he says “I feel horrible,” and he’s not lying. It would be a near-miracle if he could keep playing the minutes he does, even sitting out on end of back-to-back games, and still make it to the end of the season.

Gregg Popovich, the West coach, is more sensitive to this than anyone. That is because it is a common practice for him to judiciously rest aging starters so that they are fresh to the end of the season and the playoffs. We can not imagine him not respecting what the Lakers are trying to do, which means it would really shock us if he pushed this guy too hard, regardless of whether there was a chance to break Bob Pettit’s record of most MVP’s in All-Star play.

Sure, it could happen. Sure, the “fix” could be in as far as the voters are concerned. But we don’t think Kobe would want that. We see all the value with the “doesn’t win” half of this proposition, where you only have to lay -160 at BetAnySports, where they have a virtual plethora of NBA All-Star betting options, along with reduced juice, Live Betting Extra and the availability of Bitcoin to make deposits!