Basketball can be one of the tougher sports to handicap for novices, most believe that teams will perform the same (good or bad) in each outing because there are no weather concerns like those that exist in football, while it is indeed true that each basketball contest takes place indoors, most fail to realize how hard it is to play a sting of back to back to back games and especially if travel is involved, in this article we will look at the various factors that must be considered when handicapping NBA hoops.

Certain principles hold true no matter what sport you are handicapping, for example, injuries play a key role in any sporting event but plays a much bigger role in the NBA because they only have five starters on the hardwood versus 22 total starters on an NFL team and also have much less depth on their overall roster, this means that you really need to know the injury situation and who the backup player is before making a wager on an NBA game.

Another consideration is where the game will be played, home court is a much larger factor in the NBA than in the NFL, this comes into play when the home team is listed as the doggie and the visiting team has injuries or is in the midst of a three game or more road trip, keep in mind that road weary teams have tired legs and tired legs lose games in the final minutes.

The NBA is similar to the NFL in that fans also double as gamblers, this means that certain teams have a public following that will place wagers on them no matter what the posted point spread is, usually this can be exploited when this public team is playing at home and laying a bushel full of points to a divisional rival.

Always remember to "Line shop" for the best possible number on your team of choice in order to better enhance your chances of a winning wager, also, beware of laying the hook with road favorites and especially when key numbers are involved, a key number in the NBA is defined as any number which is a multiple of two, the reason why of course is because a basket is worth two points.

Never forget that a winning gambler is a hard working gambler, its best to stay one step ahead of the betting public by being more prepared than they are, this means that you need to know about bad scheduling situations, team chemistry problems, and injury concerns before the public, the information is readily available to everyone but its really an issue of who will go the extra mile by doing the research.