There’s a hard way and an easy way to do things. Today, I’ll tell you about the easy way to make money with basketball betting.

I’m a do-it-yourself type person and I’m sure you love doing all sorts of things on your own. With sports betting, there comes a time when you have to look at the time involved in coming up with good basketball picks.

Let’s say that it’s the start of a new week during the season and you’re going to come up with some college basketball picks. Imagine you’re a $100 bettor.

If you spend ten hours of your time coming up with basketball play, is it worth it? If you win, that’s only $10 an hour and it’s even less when you factor in the actual take over a season.

One way to maximize your profits is to delegate the often boring task of research to someone else. By ordering basketball picks from a reputable service, you can spend your time doing other things.

And here’s the important part. If you do it yourself and you don’t spend a lot of time researching, you won’t be a consistent winner.

Don’t want to spend the cash? Start out with free NBA picks or NCAA picks instead. At least this way, you’ll get a head start in your research.

Far too often, sports betting “gurus” simply talk about the money made betting, but they fail to factor in the time/labor spent coming up with the picks. It’s very possible that when you factor in this work, a “winning” bettor is actually running in the red.

The NCAA committee has changed a rule that will not only impact the game of college basketball; it will affect basketball bettors—especially those who don’t keep up with changes.

Over the past two decades we’ve enjoyed watching 3-point shots being taken at will in NCAA basketball. Starting with the 2008-09 basketball season, the 3-point shot will be longer.

Have you been following the heated Spurs vs. Suns series? In game 4, the series hit a high note when Robert Horry (San Antonio Spurs) floored Steve Nash. If they were playing hockey that would have been a good clean hit. But, it’s basketball.

Amare Stoudemire, the Phoenix Suns All-Star Center, ran off the bench to aid in the scuffle. While nothing much happened, the NBA suspended him for leaving the bench, because rules are rules.

The NBA also suspended Robert Horry for two games and Boris Diaw for one game.

If you watched last night’s Game 2 between the San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns, you saw an NBA team in the Suns and a team in the Spurs that looked like they didn’t belong in the playoffs.

The Suns seemed to run the same type of offense over and over and over, yet the Spurs couldn’t stop them. Meanwhile, they compounded problems by shooting up pointless 3’s when no one was in position to get a rebound.

Let me just say—and I’m not a Spurs fan by any means—the officiating left something to be desired. I’m not one to expect the refs to catch every single foul, but last night’s officiating was sub par.

This has to be the most boring series of the 2007 NBA Playoffs so far. And now, it’s even worse.

The Detroit Pistons beat the Chicago Bulls 108-87 last night—21-point victory. The Pistons now have a 2-0 game lead over the Bulls and they don’t lose a series when they have a 2-0 game lead.

So, is there any reason to watch—for those not Chicago or Detroit fans or basketball bettors? Nope.

Game one of the Western Conference semi-finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns went to the Spurs.

The Spurs won because Steve Nash wasn’t in the game. With a couple minutes to go, Nash collided with Tony Parker. While Parker went down—later got back up—Nash appeared okay—then the blood came.

Nash split his nose open and while he tried to stay in the game, he was eventually forced out. He came in briefly and hit an important 3-pointer, but eventually he was out. They couldn’t stop the blood.

Last night’s game 7 between the Utah Jazz and the Houston Rockets was exciting. Conventional wisdom favored the Rockets as the home team had won every meeting up to that point.

However, last night was Utah’s game to lose. Despite a somewhat close score, the game was never that close. The Rockets would dish out a spurt here and there, but they looked defeated.

We’ve approached the “good stuff” in this year’s NBA playoffs. It’s show time. I took a look at some sportsbooks today to see what the NBA futures were looking like. There are some decent lines to be had still.

Perhaps the worst line is the Detroit Pistons to win the Eastern Conference, which is at -125. No thanks. If you like them to win the East, you’re better off laying the extra juice and taking them at the -175 series price against the Chicago Bulls.

Since I don’t think the Detroit Pistons will win the East, I looked at two teams that have a shot—Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls. The Cavaliers are getting +295 and the Bulls +410.

Last night’s NBA playoff game 5 between the Golden State Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks was one of the best games of the 2007 NBA playoffs.

The icing on the cake, for me, was the fact that my free NBA play came in last night. The Golden State Warriors, despite losing, covered the +9, which was a nice gift.

So, today I’ll be heading back to sportsbook to cash in my tickets (my Sports Betting Baseball free MLB play won too).

Today, the Dallas Mavericks are at home trying to fight off elimination. The task is clear. Win and stay, lose and you’re done.

The betting line is interesting today. It’s based off of one game. Dallas Mavericks are favored by 9 to 9.5 tonight. Why?

If you look over the season, the Golden State Warriors have owned the Mavs. In fact, they played the Dallas Mavericks three times during the regular season and won all three—including one game in Dallas.