The third-seeded Houston Rockets surprised many with a 126-99 rout of the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs as six-point road underdogs in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal playoff series on Monday. Now the question is, will the Spurs bounce back in Game 2 and cover the spread as five-point home chalk on Wednesday?

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

San Antonio had won the last three meetings heading into the series opener along with six of the previous seven, going 5-2 against the spread during that stretch. But six Rockets scored in double figures in Game 1, as they built a massive 69-39 halftime lead and cruised from there.

Houston’s Patrick Beverley scored just seven points to go along with seven rebounds and four assists, although the team was plus-37 with him on the court. The Rockets were also plus-37 with Ryan Anderson, who scored 14 points.

The Cleveland Cavaliers and the San Antonio Spurs will both be trying to take commanding 3-0 leads as small road favorites in their respective first-round playoff series on Thursday. The Milwaukee Bucks will host the Toronto Raptors as 1.5-point home chalk in the other Game 3 scheduled for Thursday, with that series tied at 1-1.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

In the Eastern Conference, the second-seeded Cavaliers are listed as 2.5-point road favorites for Game 3 versus the seventh-seeded Indiana Pacers, who are 11-2 against the spread in the past 13 meetings despite losing nine of them straight up.

Cleveland beat Indiana 117-111 in Game 2 on Monday but failed to cover as a nine-point home favorite for the second straight time in the series. The over has cashed in each of the first two games of the series as well along with seven of 10 dating back to the regular season. The Cavaliers were just 20-21 SU on the road during the regular season, going 17-24 ATS.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

While the NBA Slam Dunk Contest has reduced its field since inception – limited to just four participants for the most part starting in 2002 – and seen the quality go down as well, the Three-Point Contest has remained a legitimate test of skill for those entering.

This year’s co-main events on NBA All-Star Saturday Night feature a couple of experienced favorites, and a bunch of other players looking to pull off the upset.

One could certainly argue that the Three-Point Contest is the more exciting of the two now because there are more NBA All-Stars participating in it than in the Slam Dunk Contest. Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors will defend his crown as the reigning Three-Point Contest champion, following in the footsteps of teammate Stephen Curry who won it in 2015.

 Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The Golden State Warriors (46-9) just keep on rolling for the most part despite suffering an occasional loss.

The defending Western Conference champion Warriors may not be on pace to top the best regular-season record of all-time that they set last year in finishing at 73-9, but Golden State is better with the addition of Kevin Durant and focused on winning its second NBA title in three years as a strong -175 favorite (bet $175 to win $100) over the defending league champion Cleveland Cavaliers (37-16).

The Warriors and Cavaliers – the +275 second choice (bet $100 to win $275) to repeat – are favored to meet in the NBA Finals for the third consecutive year, and it may take a major injury to one of either team’s star players or trade by a top competitor to derail that possibility come June.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is set to test the world of virtual sports as it announces its partnership with NBA 2K video game developer Take-Two Interactive Software for an official eSports league.

ESPN reported that the venture will pave the way for the NBA 2k eLeague, which both companies target to launch in 2018.

The eLeague will be patterned after most American sports league wherein there will be head-to-head competition and with a regular season, playoffs and a championship matchup. Although it is not yet clear which teams will participate, NBA said that it will be run by real NBA organizations.

“The popularity of NBA 2K with the young and growing eSports community provides a unique opportunity to develop something truly special for our fans and the gaming community,”NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “We look forward to combining our best-in-class NBA team operators with Take-Two’s competitive gaming expertise to create a brand new league experience.”

David Stern has been known as a staunch opponent of sports betting legalization. Well, not anymore.

The former NBA commissioner recently made a complete turnaround from his former stance, telling ESPN.com’s David Purdum that “the notion that gambling will lead to bad things is ‘outdated.’”

Stern, along with major sports leagues such as the NBA, supported the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), which effectively limited state-sponsored betting to Nevada and, to a lesser extent, Delaware. In 2012, Stern even argued that, “The NBA cannot be compensated in damages for the harm that sports gambling poses to the fundamental bonds of loyalty and devotion between fans and teams.”

Four years later, and Stern is singing a new tune—thanks partly to the popularity of daily fantasy sports.

The National Basketball Association has inked a deal with sports data trackers Sportradar in a further sign of the league’s willingness to embrace the legal sports betting business.

Last month, word spread that the NBA was close to sealing a $250m deal with Sportradar and rival data firm Second Spectrum that would provide official league data to (among other entities) sports betting operators.

On Thursday, the league confirmed the deals, while shying away from spelling out their dollar value. Starting with the 2016-17 season, Sportradar will serve as the Official Provider of Real-time NBA League Statistics, delivering stats on NBA, WNBA and the D-League to clients in over 80 countries.

Sportradar’s data feed will be made available to “gaming operators outside of the U.S. where gaming is legal.” The NBA will also take advantage of Sportradar’s Integrity Services, which monitors over 550 gaming operators around the globe for signs of questionable betting activity.

Former MVP Kevin Durant has all the reasons to smile these past few weeks.

Despite having no rings and only an NBA Finals appearance belt to brag, Durant remains to be the prized trophy among the more than 100 free agents that most of the teams wants to get their hands on.

He is reported to meet with the Golden State Warriors on Friday morning in Hamptons on Long Island before meeting with meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers later in the day. Durant will also hold meetings with the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics the following day.

Durant, who has earlier said that he wants to be in a team that will win him a championship right away, will conclude his stay in New York with a meeting with the Miami Heat.

It seems like we do the same, stupid song and dance every year. We convince ourselves that these young kids are ready to have huge impacts on NBA teams, and forget that “once in a generation” talents are harder to come by than we’d all like to admit. It’s like the NBA Draft is the last bastion of the old school thinking and that totally sucks for us as fans.

The NBA as a whole has moved in a different directions. Every team needs role players. The Warriors needed Andrew Bogut to play big defensive minutes the same way that the Cavaliers needed Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson to break out in the same way. Not every team gets a LeBron James or a Steph Curry. But everyone that’s in the NBA can find a place on a roster as serviceable specialist.

The morons that cover the NBA Draft, however, will tell you otherwise. Tim Legler will scream about wingspan as if America made it a drinking game. Dude, we were making fun of your obsession with arm length not encouraging you to scream louder. The whole process drives me nuts.

There is a better way to watch the whole process. In each draft, there’s usually up to three players who are legitimately franchise altering. Below them there are usually five or six players that can slip on to a decent roster and make a significant difference because they have a particular set of skills.

It seems like we do the same, stupid song and dance every year. We convince ourselves that these young kids are ready to have huge impacts on NBA teams, and forget that “once in a generation” talents are harder to come by than we’d all like to admit. It’s like the NBA Draft is the last bastion of the old school thinking and that totally sucks for us as fans.

The NBA as a whole has moved in a different directions. Every team needs role players. The Warriors needed Andrew Bogut to play big defensive minutes the same way that the Cavaliers needed Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson to break out in the same way. Not every team gets a LeBron James or a Steph Curry. But everyone that’s in the NBA can find a place on a roster as serviceable specialist.

The morons that cover the NBA Draft, however, will tell you otherwise. Tim Legler will scream about wingspan as if America made it a drinking game. Dude, we were making fun of your obsession with arm length not encouraging you to scream louder. The whole process drives me nuts.

There is a better way to watch the whole process. In each draft, there’s usually up to three players who are legitimately franchise altering. Below them there are usually five or six players that can slip on to a decent roster and make a significant difference because they have a particular set of skills.