Back in business

You can stop flooding me(us) with fan(or hate) mail. For the millions of you out there waiting for our insight (Yes, millions. You thought you were alone?) we're back in action for the 2008-2009 NBA season.
Side note: You'll excuse me(us) if I'm(we're) full of my(our)self(selves). We were 46 games over .500 last year against the spread at 636-594 and we aim to top that figure this season.

Just for you I'll cut the parentheses.

Here is where I would regale you with all kinds of exciting details about our new features and improvements... except that we didn't make any. Also one member of our three-man committee is abroad and will thus be largely unavailable. No complaining: in fairness, we cut our prices in half.

With no further ado, here are the opening night selections. Home teams in caps.

the Boston Celtics (-6.5) over the Cleveland Cavaliers
Any player who isn't motivated to play at home during a championship banner celebration probably doesn't have a pulse.

the Chicago Bulls (-5.5) over the Milwaukee Bucks
If I remember correctly, Chicago games troubled us throughout last season. We couldn't pick a Bulls' point spread correctly if our lives depended on it. Mostly that was because they underachieved a ton early in the year and then played inconsistently enough down the stretch.

With that said, Chicago should be better this season. Derrick Rose will play in the opener, and play well at that. Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah will all continue to improve. Ben Gordon will either get his act together or leave town in exchange for helpful assets before the trading deadline. And new head coach Vinny Del Negro should be able to get the best out of the talent on his roster.

As for Milwaukee, they're a more trendy pick than they were a year ago because of the Richard Jefferson trade. But keep in mind that Jefferson contributes primarily as a scorer off-the-ball and in transition. . Here is what you should keep in mind about Milwaukee:

• Michael Redd will have another nice season, but he is a likely trade candidate.
• Richard Jefferson contributes mostly as a scorer off-the-ball and in transition.
  
• The rest of Milwaukee's personnel isn't fit to play an uptempo style.
• Joe Alexander was a great lottery pick, but is too young to contribute right away (and may not receive the minutes to do so).
• They're going to be awful defensively.

Expect us to stay away as often as we can this coming season. Even when they are getting 5.5 points.

the Los Angeles Lakers (-7.5) over the Portland Trailblazers
Portland is another trendy "sleeper" pick for this season. But they're completely overmatched when they face up against the elite teams in the western conference, as they are here.Portland
is probably going to sit back in a zone and let Los Angeles shoot over the top of them, and Portland's second unit-anchored by rookie Rudy Fernandez- might be able to cut into the deficit, but they're ultimately going to lose this one to the defending conference champions.

Bored? We took all three home favorites on opening night, but we feel great about all three picks. Feel free to check back and taunt us about the ones we missed all season long. We'll be around.

Last Night:0-0
Season: 0-0
Last Season: 636-594