I hope this edition of the Bondi Blog finds you and your loved ones safe and well.
We had our first losing Saturday on the track last Saturday in a month, but $20 across the board bettors are still +$825 over the last 4 weeks. Greg Turner will have 3 more best bets from the track this Saturday and the PGA TOUR returns next Thursday and we will be ready with three to-win and matchup bets. More exciting news: The Belmont Stakes is on June 20!
It’s only $199 for the next four weeks of winners in horse racing and golf so call 1-877-332-0077 now to get aboard the Steam Team!
The NBA’s Board of Governors is expected to approve a league proposal today that would restart the season in Orlando and create a 22-team playoff format. The new plan would see 13 Western Conference teams and nine Eastern Conference teams play eight regular-season games, before beginning the playoffs. The top eight teams in both conferences are already in while six teams — New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trailblazers, San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns and Washington Wizards — will fight for the final spots. The format is expected to begin July 31 with the NBA Finals finishing up in mid-October.
Two teams that had high hopes before the pandemic hit the world that we think will be hurt the most by the more-than-four-month layoff are Denver and Utah.
First off, both of these teams thrive off their home court advantage. Thanks to ultra-loud fans and arenas and the fact that opposing teams are often unprepared for the altitude in these cities, the two Northwest Division teams have gone a combined 115-41 (74%) on their home floors since 2018, including 46-18 this season. But with all the games being played in Orlando, that stout home court advantage goes bye-bye.
What’s more, we don’t like the roster make-up of these teams for this particular format. We will be leaning more toward veteran coaches with a lot of experience in the playoff since these teams are going to need solid leadership and guidance to get through a very strange set of circumstances, playing in a neutral site, being holed up in a hotel and playing games with no fans.
Let’s start with the Jazz. You may remember that Rudy Gobert acted like a complete asshole just before COVID-19 exploded in the U.S., laughing about the virus and jokingly touching the microphones of the media with his hands to prove he wasn’t afraid. Well, the joke was on Rudy as he became one of the first NBA players to test positive for coronavirus, followed shortly after by teammate Donovan Mitchell. This caused a ton of friction within the locker room and from what we hear, there is still a strong divide between the players and coaches about who had it first and who passed the virus through the locker room.
Not helping matters is the fact that starting forward Bojan Bogdanovic had surgery in May to repair a “ruptured scapholunate ligament” in his right wrist that ended his season. Bogdanovic has been a veteran presence for the Jazz this season and is the second-leading scorer with 20 points per game. His absence will put a lot of pressure on Mitchell, a second-year pro with not much playoff experience. And since Bogdanovic signed a four-year, $73 million free agent deal with the Jazz last summer, his teammates feel betrayed that he quit on him.
Needless to say, this team is a dumpster fire and they don’t have a veteran head coach leading the way out of the wreck as Quinn Synder is just 10-17 in the playoffs in three seasons on the Jazz bench. We will most definitely be looking to go against the Jazz when things tip off again in Orlando.
As for the Nuggets, they enter the resumption of play with the third-best record in the Western Conference and only a game behind the Clippers, but they are worlds away from being as good as the Clippers or Lakers and have hung their hat on being a super difficult out at home where they are 25-8 in the altitude.
There’s a very good chance that Denver will draw Houston in the first round and the Rockets have been a nightmare matchup for the Nuggets in recent history. Denver has gone 3-12 in their last 15 games against Houston and in two road trips against the Rockets this year they got pounded by scores of 121-105 and 130-104.
In fact, the last time the Nuggets beat the Rockets in a game not played in Denver was way back on Oct. 28, 2015 in Houston. And head coach Michael Malone doesn’t inspire too much confidence since he’s led just one team to the NBA playoffs in his career with 14 postseason games under his belt. This is not a recipe for success, so color the Nuggets “overrated” when we head into the playoffs on July 31.
Two interesting rule changes for the upcoming NFL season were both shot down by the competition committee. The first one called for discontinuing onside kicks, which have only been recovered by the kicking team 6% of the time over the last five years, and instead give a team the option to go for a 4th and 15 play from their own 25 yard line. If they make it, they keep the ball and if not the opposing team gets the ball in great field position. A team could use this option only in the fourth quarter and only twice a game. Since running starts were banned in 2015, the onside kick has become nearly impossible to recover but the competition committee voted the change down because they felt that it would strongly benefit teams with a strong QB while teams with lousy QBs would be at a disadvantage.
So what! Teams with subpar QBs are always at a disadvantage against a squad with a good signal caller. I would have liked the committee to give it a one year trial as it would certainly add some excitement.
The other rule was the so-called referee in the sky that would have put an official in a booth with video access to help on-field officials. It was voted down but is already being done now. Replay officials are in touch with the head official during challenged plays and often on plays that are not being challenged to let them know what the video shows even though that is currently illegal.
We went on record months ago that there will be an NFL season, and now it looks like we will most certainly see college football in some form or fashion. Some schools are being proactive to ensure there will be a season. Notre Dame is starting school three weeks early on August 10th. Officially, it’s to wrap the semester up by Thanksgiving so if there is a second wave of the virus in November/December they school can get at least 1 semester of “live” school finished. But the real reason is to see if there is a surge in positive cases once the students return to campus and if so, the hope is for herd immunity so that students will be able to attend games in person.
The SEC has already said they would have a football season, even if schools just play each other and the Big 12 is planning on playing, as well. No surprise since football profits fund 80% of Big 12 athletic programs and without football the non-revenue sports will be discontinued.
Triple Crown winning trainer Bob Baffert got caught with his hand in the cookie jar again. Two of Baffert’s horses tested positive for a banned substance including Charlatan, an undefeated colt considered to be a top contender for the Belmont Stakes on June 20. Baffert has a long history of drug violations and is the third most fined trainer of the top 20 trainers by earnings in the U.S., averaging one drug violation for every 545 starts.
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