Thursday...

3-1, +$190

Golden State Warriors -3, laying $110 to win $100 -- Ok, somehow I just lost half my write-up when I hit submit so I have to type this over again...But, here we go again, maybe a shorter version this time:

Two words: Andre Iguodala...A very under-rated player in this league...Look at how bad, how quickly, my 76ers went from a medicore team barely making the playoffs in a weak Eastern Conference to just flat-out terrible in just the 1 1/4 seasons ago since AI went to Denver last season and now to GS this season...Iguodala returned from injury last time out for GS and voila, the Warriors absolutely blew out the Pelicans...Sure, the final score shows an 11-point win, but GS was up at least 24 in the 4th quarter when I had the game on (NBA Package, DirecTv, a must for any NBA fan) and it was garbage time that entire quarter...Now if you think I am partial towards former 76ers' players or the 76ers in general, you are badly mistaken as I bet or pick against Philly quite regularly and have done so for decades whenever they stink...But you may have heard the phrase "Figures don't lie, but liars can figure"...Well, I don't buy into every damn number or newfangled stat that is out there these days, but I do like this stat: "The Warriors are plus 15.6 points per 100 possessions with Iguodala on the court, No. 1 among players who average at least 30 minutes per game."....And you may look at the boxscore for the Pelicans game and say, "Well, he only had 2 points in 17+ minutes", but I will point out to you that you missed a very important number on Iggy's line and that is the plus/minus number and he was a +20, second best in the game behind only Stephen Curry...I am also kind of hoping that Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich maybe sits Ginobili or Duncan tonight, but that would be a bonus for me and I don't really expect that with Parker out...But, the Spurs are coming off a hard-fought win vs. the Suns last night at PHOE where they got a big 4Q from Ginobili to earn that win and this is a back-end of a back-to-back and their 7th game in 10 days...Speaking of games at Phoenix, Warrior's coach Mark Jackson called his team out after a loss at PHOE 2 games ago as he challenged their focus and effort for 48 minutes and they responded with a resounding win vs. the Pelicans last time out...I expect GS to go on a little bit of a run now with Iggy back, which allows Harrison Barnes to come off the bench again (as he took Iggy's starting spot while he was hurt) and GS needs all the bench help they can get as I believe they are ranked 28th in the league in bench scoring...And lastly, I have a mini chart-play on GS to boot...Oh, and I forgot to mention that GS has a small revenge spot here as the Spurs did beat them at Oracle on 11/8 this season and GS has had some success at Oracle vs. SA dating back to last season...

GL...