Have you ever noticed that this year it seems that the NBA, not un-like the stock market, has been full of volatility? I don't recall ever seeing so many blowouts Timebet. And then we will see that same team comeback the next time out and win, not necessarily by a lot, but still win.

First of all what do I mean by a blowout? For the sake of discussion, let's call a blowout any game in which a team loses by more than 15 points.

I guess one should expect the losing team in a blowout to come back after a blowout loss, as they mentally feel that they have something to prove; that they are better than they showed the previous outing. Now, some NBA teams that lose big, do so because they have lots of problems. Minnesota, Seattle, Memphis, Miami all come to mind and these teams have been blown out many times this year for obvious reasons. But even the better teams of this season, Boston included now after losing to Utah by 18 on 3/14/08, have been blown out at some time this year. The facts are that, after a blowout, just less than half of the victims of a blowout will cover the spread the next time out according to the research I saw. This is hardly anything to get excited about.

In any event the information I saw showed the following:

o Blowouts are common with the average NBA team being the victim of a blowout eight times so far this year as of mid-March. Boston had been the best at avoiding a blowout with their first coming on 3/14/08 and Memphis and Minnesota having the most with seventeen so far.

o The West, even with Memphis and Minnesota, have the fewest blowouts and have the best record ATS the next time out. There are more weak teams in the East and it certainly shows with the having around 20% more blowouts to date than the West.

o Good teams bounce back better than the poorer teams. As of mid-March half of the teams in the NBA are above .500 and that group has beaten the spread 60% of the time when coming back from a blowout. The teams below have beaten the spread only 40% when they comeback. So as a generalization, bet accordingly.

o The teams which have been the best ATS in comeback attempts are some teams you would expect - Denver, Toronto, Washington, Philadelphia and Orlando Timebet. But some teams you may not expect have also done quite well ATS in their comeback games and include Minnesota, Seattle and Indiana. Several of those teams are below .500 for the year. Teams with the poorest showing ATS in comeback games are Memphis, Charlotte, Chicago and Atlanta.

o Being blown out two games in a row is trouble. According to the data, fourteen teams have not been blown out more than once to date, but the remaining teams have been blown out two games in a row 39 times. Betting on the victims of two blowouts in a row has been difficult as they have covered the spread less than 40% of the time. Memphis and Chicago have been the worst performers in comeback games after two blowouts, Minnesota, Charlotte, Cleveland and Indiana the best.