Prediction and tips galore

By Alex P. Vidal

“All of us are in the same place, each with our own rooms, and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. Which is totally different than college, where they manage your schedule for you. In the NBA, you’re on your own.”—Stephen Curry

TO determine which team will wrap up this year’s NBA Finals, I picked CBS Sports’ amazing report on pre-game tips and predictions released three hours before I wrote this story May 30 (Tuesday) night as the world’s most popular basketball championship begins on June 1 (Thursday) evening at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado.

The Denver Nuggets host the Miami Heat for Game 1 of a best-of-seven matchup, with the championship on the line.

It may be recalled that Denver Nuggets logged a 12-3 record in playoff action after earning the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, and ousting the very popular Los Angeles Lakers via sweep in the dramatic Western Conference finals.

Coached by the darling of Philippine cage fans, Erik Spoelstra,

Miami had to labor hard in seven games to silence the Boston Celtics, reaching the championship round as the No. 8 seed in the East.

Tipoff is at 8:30 p.m. ET in Denver, according to CBS Sports as Caesars Sportsbook lists Denver Nuggets as the 8.5-point home favorite, while the over/under, or total number of points Vegas thinks will be scored, is 219 in the latest Miami Heat vs. Nuggets odds.

Before locking in any Nuggets vs. Heat picks, we need to see the NBA playoff predictions and betting advice from SportsLine’s advanced computer model, according to CBS Sports.

The SportsLine Projection Model reportedly simulates every NBA game 10,000 times and has returned well over $10,000 in profit for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past four-plus seasons.

CBS Sports reported that the model enters the 2023 NBA Finals a stunning 72-38 on all top-rated NBA picks this season, returning nearly $2,900. Anyone following it has seen huge returns.

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Now, the model has set its sights on Heat vs. Nuggets and just locked in its picks and NBA Finals predictions.

We can head to SportsLine now to see the model’s picks. Here are several NBA betting lines and trends for Nuggets vs. Heat:

–Heat vs. Nuggets spread: Nuggets -8.5

-Heat vs. Nuggets over/under: 219 points

-Heat vs. Nuggets money line: Nuggets -400, Heat +310

-MIA: The Heat are 22-27-1 against the spread in road games

-DEN: The Nuggets are 30-18-1 against the spread in home games

-Heat vs. Nuggets picks (Source: CBS sports)

Our other source, Duane Rankin of Arizona Republic, noted that no eighth seed has ever won an NBA championship.

Rankin stressed the following:

The lowest seed to ever do so was Houston nearly 30 years ago when they swept Orlando in the 1995 finals as a sixth seed in the West.

Miami is an eighth seed. The Knicks reached the finals as an eighth seed in the strike-shortened 1998-99 season, but they lost to San Antonio in five.

The Denver Nuggets have never won an NBA title.

This is their first finals appearance after reaching the conference finals four previous times in 1978, 1985, 2009 and 2020.

This is the first time they’ve been a No. 1 seed in the West.

This is the best team two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic has had with the Nuggets.

“Finally healthy, too, the Nuggets have looked like the best team in the playoffs,” Rankin emphasized. “Jokic is averaging a triple-double in the postseason—29.9 ppg, 13.2 rpg., and 10.2 apg. He’s posted eight triple-doubles this postseason to pass Wilt Chamberlain for the most ever in a playoff run.”

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DEPENDABILITY. Man’s permanent value rests upon his dependability.

The first question asked is, “Can we depend upon this person?”

A man may be clever, capable and agreeable, but if you cannot depend upon him you do not want him around.

To be dependable we must be dependable in all things—little and big—at all times, in all places, under all circumstances.

We cannot be dependable if we have weak character and a weak will.

The dependable man keeps as straight in the dark as in the light. We know that wherever he is put he will not LIE, he will not STEAL, he will not CHEAT, he will not do any mean or contemptible thing.

ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY. According to the U.S. Department of State, the United States is deeply troubled by Uganda’s passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, a law that undermines the human rights, prosperity, and welfare of all Ugandans.

Uganda’s failure to safeguard the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons is part of a broader degradation of human rights protections that puts Ugandan citizens at risk and damages the country’s reputation as a destination for investment, development, tourism, and refugees.

The United States has urged the Government of Uganda to refrain from implementing laws that undermine human rights.

In the context of the serious concerns conveyed by President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken announced May 29 that the Department of State will develop mechanisms to support the rights of LGBTQI+ individuals in Uganda and to promote accountability for Ugandan officials and other individuals responsible for, or complicit in, abusing their human rights.

“I have also directed the Department to update our travel guidance to American citizens and to U.S. businesses as well as to consider deploying existing visa restrictions tools against Ugandan officials and other individuals for abuse of universal human rights, including the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons,” Blinken said.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)