betED.com Gets Ready for NBA Playoffs
For release April 12, 2007

We’re officially in the home stretch of the NBA season and betED.com will be the place to be when the NBA Playoffs get going in a few weeks.

In the meantime, there is still a lot of late-season NBA action to wager on, with several playoff races heating up.

One team that’s been chasing a playoff position for the past several weeks finally reached their goal this week. The Denver Nuggets secured a post-season berth with a 115-106 win over Northwest Division-leading Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.

The second-place Nuggets have been playing their best basketball of the season. Denver extended its winning streak to seven straight with its win over the slumping Jazz.

Allen Iverson had 22 points and 12 assists, and Carmelo Anthony scored 32 points for the Nuggets, who haven’t lost a game in April.  

"What I’m happy about is we’re just approaching every game the same way,’’ Iverson said after the game.”We won six games in a row, but we didn’t care about that. We were concerned about this game here tonight.’’

The Nuggets led by as many as 14 points and held off several late surges by Utah to avoid a sweep by the Jazz in the season series. Marcus Camby had 13 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocks for Denver.

Denver needed just one more win to clinch a spot in the playoffs and can finish no better than sixth in the Western Conference standings. That will mean visiting one of the top three teams in the first round, but the way the Nuggets are playing and with who they have, home court might not be much of an advantage for their opponent.

The Jazz have lost a season-high five in a row and could be starting the playoffs on the road despite being the division champion.

"There are lessons to be learned from the last two or three weeks. We’ve kind of destroyed a little bit of a great season,’’ Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "Look at where this team could have been if we just had a little more effort on three or four different occasions.’’