- WEEK 9 PREDICTIONS -
WRITTEN BY: STEPHEN A. KELLERMAN
Welcome to Week 9 of ETBL Elite! Some teams are entering week 9 with playoff aspirations out of their hands (shoutout the Wolves), while other teams are fighting at a chance at making the post season. Pretty incredible how much parity there is and the work put in by the ETBL team to make the schedule organized. The attention to detail is amazing and is what makes this league stand out and like Kendrick said..."they not like us". Meanwhile, other teams are fighting for favorable seeding (not sure there are any) and some teams are looking to build chemistry for a run at the ETBL Elite Championship! Let’s see what happens, but here are my predictions!
3:00PM RAPTORS vs KNICKS – (RAPTORS +14)
Raptors are coming off a tough nail bitter overtime loss to the Heat and will be hungry to get back on the winning tip. Whereas, the Knicks are coming off an impressive win against the Magic and are rolling with momentum. My message to the Raptors is to rest your starters (as you guys have secured a playoff birth) and let the bench guys get some burn time. If the Raptors play their starters the Knicks are going to be outmatched in my humble opinion. Tafari may be the best player on the court but the Raps have a much deeper team.
3:30PM BULLS vs PISTONS – (PISTONS +19)
Bulls took a tough loss last week albeit without Davion. Pistons have added JERMAINE MYERS a couple weeks back and he finally got into the fray. He is exactly whta the Pistons needed to save their season. The Pistons went from having their post season on life support to low key becoming a serious contender! The Bulls biggest weakness is their lack of size and look for the Pistons to exploit that. Big Mike needs to play like BIG Mike and if Myers did what he did last week...there is going to be some bull shit on the floor of Abilities.
4:30PM HEAT vs MAGIC – (HEAT +10)
Usually something magical needs to happen for teams to beat the Heat and I don't see that happening today. After a thrilling OT win over the Raptors...GM Omar and company look to make light work out of the Magic. The Magic need this win to get closer to securing a spot in the playoffs. We need Nena aka Oneil to go crazy along with a couple other pieces. This is the game of the year for the Magic. Battle of of Florida but I got South Beach easy.
5:30PM ROCKETS vs WOLVES – (ROCKETS +10)
The Rockets are going to send the Wolves into a full rebuild after beating the Wolves. The Wolves season has been awful with guys missing games (Mayo) and players requesting for trades. The chemistry just has not been there but they certainly had the talent. Back to the drawing board for the Wolves. I mean there is one more game next week, but don’t bother showing up, especially if when you lose this one.
6:30PM LAKERS vs NETS – (LAKERS +8)
Nets with a huge win last week after beating the Bulls! The Nets live another day in an attempt to make the post season. The Lakers are no joke and they are taking the regular season seriously and so this will be a tough battle. Look for the Nets to come out ultra aggressive as this game needs to be taken as a must win scenario! Lakers have just been playing better throughout the season and I expect them to be on their game in this one.
7:00PM BLAZERS vs WIZARDS – (BLAZERS +23)
Blazers rest your starters and MVP’s to make this game a tad bit more entertaining. I can’t sit and watch another blowout. Wizard’s cannot afford to drop this game or else they will be watching the post season from Cancun or ETBL’s Youtube channel (ETBL2K).