NBA Betting News at BetLM

NBA Finals Generates Best Game 2 Overnight Rating Since 2004

NEW YORK (NBA/Newsfeed) — The NBA Finals Game 2 on ABC — Miami Heat defeated Okla­homa City to even the series at 1–1 — gen­er­ated an 11.8 overnight rat­ing, the best overnight rat­ing for a Game 2 since 2004 and sec­ond high­est ever on ABC, accord­ing to Nielsen. The 11.8 rat­ing is up 12 per­cent com­pared to last year’s Finals Game 2 (Miami Heat vs. Dal­las Mav­er­icks), which earned a 10.5. The two-game NBA Finals overnight rat­ings aver­age for 2012 is an 11.8, up 11 per­cent from last year. Game 2 peaked with a 15.1 rat­ing from 11:30 to 11:45 p.m. ET. In Okla­homa... 

Former Lakers Coach Phil Jackson Hints at a Return

NEW YORK (NBA/Newsfeed) — Phil Jack­son says “there might be” an NBA job that would lure him out of retirement. The 11-time NBA cham­pion coach tells HBO’s “Real Sports” that the Knicks and Magic open­ings this off­sea­son were not the posi­tions to bring him back to the bench. In an inter­view sched­uled to air Tues­day night, Jack­son con­firms that New York, where he started his play­ing career, didn’t con­tact him before remov­ing the interim tag from Mike Woodson’s title, but “I wasn’t going to take the job, that’s for sure.” Jack­son calls the Knicks’... 

Hornets Sale to Saints Owner Benson Official

NEW ORLEANS (NBA/Newsfeed) - Saints owner Tom Ben­son has offi­cially gained con­trol of the New Orleans Hor­nets from the NBA. The com­ple­tion Fri­day of the $ 338 mil­lion sale of the NBA club comes two days after the league’s board of gov­er­nors approved the deci­sion to sell to Ben­son. As part of the deal, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jin­dal has approved the Hor­nets’ lease exten­sion at the state-owned New Orleans Arena, which runs through 2024 and pro­vides for $ 50 mil­lion in improvements. Ben­son agreed in April to buy the Hor­nets. The team had been owned by the... 

Thunder’s Fisher Endures Taxing Year, Gets Title Shot

OKLAHOMA CITY (NBA/Newsfeed) — A long, tax­ing year is com­ing to a famil­iar fin­ish for Okla­homa City Thun­der guard Derek Fisher. It all started with him being front and cen­ter dur­ing the NBA lock­out as the pres­i­dent of the play­ers’ union. It grew more com­pli­cated when the Los Ange­les Lak­ers traded him away after he’d won five cham­pi­onships with the franchise. Fisher signed on with Okla­homa City, and he’s three wins away from achiev­ing his ulti­mate goal of win­ning a sixth title. Only 13 play­ers in NBA his­tory have been a part of that many cham­pi­onship... 

Heat and Celtics Prepare to Meet Again in Postseason

MIAMI (NBA/Newsfeed) — It’s a rematch: Miami and Boston will meet in the play­offs again, this time with a spot in the NBA finals at stake. Boston’s 85–75 win in Game 7 over Philadel­phia on Sat­ur­day night earned the Celtics a trip to Miami, where the reign­ing East cham­pion Heat will host Game 1 of this year’s con­fer­ence title series Mon­day night. Boston took the regular-season series from Miami 3–1, though the last of those meet­ings was in the final game of the sea­son and came on a night where LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all sat out for Miami, while... 

James, Heat Turn Attention Toward East Finals

MIAMI (NBA/Newsfeed) — LeBron James shook a few hands, slapped a few fives, gave a few hugs. That was the extent of his cel­e­brat­ing after the Miami Heat ousted the Indi­ana Pacers. A return to the East­ern Con­fer­ence finals — no small achieve­ment by any mea­sure — is nice, though it’s far from the oft-stated goal for the reign­ing NBA MVP and the Heat. They’ll host Game 1 of the East title series on Mon­day night against either Philadel­phia or Boston, both of those teams hav­ing been ousted from last year’s play­offs by Miami in five games. “You can’t just... 

Sixers’ Young Core Gives Franchise Bright Future

PHILADELPHIA (NBA/Newsfeed) — Under new man­age­ment, the 76ers had Philadel­phia car­ing about bas­ket­ball again. They had co-owner Will Smith sit­ting court­side and play­ing along to the cameras. They brought Julius Erv­ing back in the fold. Allen Iver­son made a stir­ring return, too. But the biggest buzz at last came from the Six­ers them­selves. No longer mired in medi­oc­rity, Jrue Hol­i­day, Evan Turner, Andre Iguo­dala, Lou Williams, Elton Brand and Co., car­ried the team from a 20–9 start into plucky post­sea­son over­achiev­ers. Led by coach Doug Collins,... 

Knicks’ Davis Knee Injury Requires Surgery

NEW YORK (NBA/Newsfed) — Knicks’ guard Baron Davis will undergo surgery later this week after an MRI on Mon­day revealed major dam­age to his right knee, accord­ing to the Knicks. Davis, whose right knee buck­led in the third quar­ter Sun­day in Game 4 of the play­off series with the Miami Heat, has a par­tial tear of the patella ten­don and com­plete tears of the ante­rior cru­ci­ate and medial col­lat­eral knee lig­a­ments. Recov­ery from the surgery will take about 12 months. Davis, who has bat­tled injuries all sea­son, is the lat­est Knicks guard lost to an injury.... 

Bucks Mbah a Moute Undergoes Knee Surgery

MILWAUKEE (NBA/Newsfeed) — The Mil­wau­kee Bucks say for­ward Luc Mbah a Moute has under­gone suc­cess­ful surgery for ten­dini­tis in his right knee. The team says Mbah a Moute had surgery Fri­day in Los Ange­les. The 6-foot-8 for­ward is expected to make a full recov­ery and be ready for train­ing camp in October. Mbah a Moute missed 19 games this sea­son, includ­ing the last three of the reg­u­lar sea­son, because of sore­ness and ten­dini­tis in his right knee. In 22 starts this sea­son, the four-year NBA vet­eran aver­aged a career-high 7.7 points per game while... 

Smith, Horford Return for Atlanta in Game 4

BOSTON (NBA/Newsfeed) — Cen­ter Josh Smith and for­ward Al Hor­ford are back for Game 4 of the Atlanta Hawks’ first-round play­off series against the Boston Celtics. Smith missed Game 3 with a strained ten­don in his left knee but was in the start­ing lineup. Hor­ford, who had not played since Jan. 11 with a torn left pec­toral mus­cle, came off the bench. The Celtics had Ray Allen back for the sec­ond straight game after he missed almost a month with bone spurs in his right ankle. Guard Avery Bradley was in the start­ing lineup one game after dis­lo­cat­ing his shoulder. Our sports betting news features unique sports betting articles as well as current sports news compiled from leading wire services....