The BBC basketball service which is working in co-operation with clubgowi, has just completed it's first two weeks of the new season and has made a very solid start (perhaps too good !) and early signs are that this NBA season will be a profitable one. Rates for the rest of the 2015-16 season can be found on this page and have just been reduced by 30€ .Yesterday's notes from Veselin can be read below in full.

Hi guys,

Philadelphia 76ers - Chicago Bulls

Recommendation: Bulls - 8

Odds:  1.854

Bookmaker: Pinnaclesports / Sportmarket

Stake: 1 unit (flat staking)

Stating the obvious here, the only question is will Bulls cover the spread or not. Backdoor cover is always a possibility of course, yet I think Chicago really need and want to make a statement, be it against Sixers or not. Windy Town team has full dominance in the series between the teams in the last years, as expected, winning 11 of last 12 (incl. 6 straight).  (Ex)-superstar Derrick Rose has something to prove to his teammates, coaches and whole NBA world in general too, in relation to the constantly flying rumours for trades involving him, his game being under par, etc.

Not that Philly will surrender without a fight but they just don’t have enough prepared soldiers, at this stage at least. Well, rookie Okafor is the only bright spot for them at center but Bulls have abundance of quality big men to oppose the young fella. Sixers have huge disadvantage in the backcourt where Rose and Jimmy Butler shouldn’t have too much difficulties in tearing the opponent’s defense apart.

All in all, I can’t see Bulls not winning at this spot and think they’ll be motivated enough to secure double digit lead and cover the spread.

Atlanta Hawks – Minnesota Timberwolves

Recommendation: Wolves + 9

Odds:  1.925

Bookmaker: Pinnaclesports / Sportmarket

Stake: 1 unit (flat staking)

A bit dangerous call here but I like it too much to leave it out of my shortlist. Minny stunned Bulls, winning with extra time in Chicago on Saturday. It was a very good win for them and performance level was surprisingly good for such a young team. If they keep progressing with this tempo, who knows, maybe they’ll be a contender in some 3-4 seasons. Back to the present though, they have a hard task against Atlanta tonight. I don’t really expect another shocking win from Wolves but this spread seem a bit high in Atlanta’s favour.

Hawks are on a hot streak of 7 wins after the initial defeat in the opener. They play well, the offense is fluent and clicking again, BUT (there’s always one but) Atlanta have the usual problems when playing against good rebounding teams. Hawks rank somewhere around 25^th place in the leagues so far in this category and Minny is definitely one of the better teams (around 7-8^th spot).

Wolves’ rookie Karl-Anthony Towns is already making huge impression all around the league and is raising eyebrows, can’t see anything preventing him (bar any major injuries of course) from becoming 20 pts. – 10 rbs. (at least) in a season or two. Leading scorer Kevin Martin is returning in the team after missing a few days for personal reasons and Ricky Rubio also seem rejuvenated at point and Minny really should only take care about the ball more and prevent stupid turnovers in order to keep the game relatively close tonight IMO.

Los Angeles Clippers - Memphis Grizzlies

Recommendation: UNDER 199

Odds:  1.97

Bookmaker: Pinnaclesports / Sportmarket

Stake: 1 unit (flat staking)

Clippers and Memphis resume their hard-fought rivalry from the past 3-4 seasons tonight and I will be quite surprised if the game doesn’t have at least a pinch of play-off intensity and atmosphere in it, with the whole history between these 2 teams!

Clippers feel really sorry for themselves currently, after heavy close defeats against top rivals like Houston and GSW. Both games features some questionable situations and referee calls, gone mostly against Clipps, and Doc and his boys are angry at the world right now. So it will be fight for every ball from them but star point guard and floor general Chris Paul will likely miss the game again because of strained groin. His replacement is Doc’s son, the young Rivers, and he’s not up to the task really (albeit only a few players around the league could fill Paul’s boots in all honesty). So Clippers offense shouldn’t be so fluent tonight.

Memphis also has their share of problems, some of their performances were quite flat for a contending team. Rumours are flying in the air about possible Zach Randolph trade (he is questionable tonight btw) and the atmosphere in the team is not perfect according all reports. What can they do to turn it around? What else except relying to their trade mark, the grinding stuffing defense.

So we have two teams quite desperate for the win (or at least for a good stabile game to steady the ship), not really liking each other, to put it mildly. They’ve gone over this total line only 1 from 4 meetings last season and I strongly favour this trend to continue tonight.

GL!