Yep, the NBA begins tonight and this is what it's come to here in Philly.

I think it is a disgrace they are charging people even a dime to see this shitfest nightly. Attendance has never been great for the 76ers, but even the flies will be staying away this season.

From ESPN.com:

LAS VEGAS -- It's no secret things figure to be bad this season for a Philadelphia 76ers team doing little more than masquerading as an NBA franchise.

Leave it to the oddsmakers in this gambling city to show just how bad things could be for a team contending for nothing but the NBA's next top draft pick.

As the regular season tips off, the over-under for 76ers victories is 16.5, the lowest of any team and the lowest total LVH sports book oddsmaker Jeff Sherman can remember putting up on any NBA team in the past decade or so.

That means optimistic Philly fans (assuming there are any for a team with only a handful of legitimate NBA players) can win if they bet their team will win 17 times during the 82-game season.

"They've pretty much made it known in Philadelphia they're trying to get the No. 1 pick for Andrew Wiggins and not holding back," Sherman said. "Teams try for the draft pick sometimes late in the season, but they're basically doing it the whole season."

It gets even better for true believers. They can get odds of 9,999-1 if they want to wager at the LVH on the 76ers winning the title.

"It was the highest number our computers would let us put in," Sherman said.

The 76ers aren't alone in coveting Wiggins, who has scouts drooling even though he's just beginning his freshman season at Kansas. Things are pretty dismal in the desert, too, with the Phoenix Suns posted as the next-worst team with an over-under total of 19.5 wins.

Perhaps most surprising, though, is that oddsmakers have such little respect for the chances of the Los Angeles Lakers and their aging and injury-prone cast of stars. They believe the Lakers will lose more than they win, with an over-under of 34.5 wins for the season.

"We've been writing a lot of over money from the public having a hard time believing the Lakers are going to be that bad," Sherman said. "We have a different view when you look at how severe Kobe's injury is and the mileage of [Steve] Nash and [Pau] Gasol."

Sherman, who teams with fellow oddsmaker Ed Salmons to put up the first betting lines weeks before the season opens, has the defending champion Miami Heat favored again for most wins, though with an over-under of 60.5 he doesn't believe the Heat will approach last season's win total of 66.

"That was one of the easier ones and it was close to what we had last year," he said. "They won more than that last year, but that included a 27-game winning streak that we don't expect to be repeated."

Miami is also favored at 2-1 to win another NBA title, followed by the Oklahoma City Thunder at 9-2, the Chicago Bulls at 6-1 and the San Antonio Spurs at 8-1.

I'm also a Pelicans fan and see that team much improved especially since the 76ers gave away All-Star guard Holliday.

I think fans in Brooklyn really have a nice team this season too. Maybe this is the year Oklahoma City gets a title. I hope like hell it's not Miami again.

Big Knicks fan here ever since the 70s but I wouldn't mind the Nets having a nice run too. Anybody but the Heat.

I've been a Knick's fan since the mid-60's, but I just can not root for a team that has 3 of my least favorite players-Anthony, JR Smith and Artest.
I waited 10 years for them to get under the salary cap, and this is what I got.
.

76ers were up 19-0 on the Heat!

Watching this and seeing the 76ers make their first 11 shots I knew the Heat could not possibly let this continue, and they didn't as the 76ers went the first 6:30 of the 2nd qtr w no FGs.

However, they've gotten hot again, and are up 41-30.

They will lose as they are pitiful-but this has been entertaining so far.

Still 66-62 and anybody's game.

95-91 Miami. 76ers hangin in so far. Carter-Williams has been off the charts-I am very impressed.

How the Pacers doin? I think they're playing my other favorite team the Pelicans (the artists formerly known as the Hornets).

The Sixers pull it off! I can't believe it!

Pacers won their opener against the hapless Magic but are struggling against the Pelicans at halftime. Hope they can come back.

OH MY!

This was my NBA Championship Series tonight.

76ers are supposed to be one of the worst teams EVER and they beat the 2-time defending champs 114-110.

How 'bout Michael Carter-Williams???

In his NBA debut MCW had a league-record for a 1st game 9 steals, with 22 pts, 7 rbs and 12 assists! Has there been a better debut ever? Especially against the 2-time defending champs?

YIKES.

They will be awful-I am sure of it but the plan might work.

I think they will be a fantastic overachieving underdog story this year. Like that year with Lin and the Knicks.

Yes! I'm a fan of anyone who beats Miami. Nice job, Philly!

Pacers beat the much-improved Pelicans 95-90 Steve!

Wow. Hell of a comeback for the Pacers!!

As am I. Good night for Cleveland, too, beating the all-money Nets.

Watching the 76ers game last night it dawned on me that they "rested" Dwayne Wade.

After 1 game and with all that frickin' money? They deserved to lose for many reasons, and that would be at the top of the list. What a joke.

So, the 76ers are supposed to be one of the worst teams in NBA history and are now 3-0.

Stunned the Bulls last night and came back from 20 pts to do it.

I know this can't last but it's fun as hell.

Pacers are 6-0. Dang.

Nice Steve! George is awesome, simply awesome.

76ers beat up Cleveland and the fans booed the living shit out of that stiff Bynum who says he is uninspired due to his injuries and he considered retirement.

Nice to hear after making $16.9 mil last year to do nothing but hurt himself even worse bowling.

Then he takes $24 mil from the idiotic Cavs and says this shit. What a loser-always was, always will be.

James Anderson, who was waived by Houston haunts his old team with 36 points last night as the 76ers beat the Rockets in OT 123-117 without Carter-Williams who was hurt.

5 wins already! Love it!

This was a stinker for New York area fans!

NEW YORK -- The "laughingstocks" won in a laugher.

The Knicks resembled the division champions of a season ago rather than the biggest losers in New York, outplaying and even outtalking the Brooklyn Nets, who look like the real Big Apple busts.

Carmelo Anthony had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Iman Shumpert scored a season-high 17 points, and the Knicks ended a nine-game losing streak with 113-83 romp Thursday night in the first meeting of the season between the city rivals.

"I think everybody looked like they had that feeling that we were tired of losing," Anthony said. "It showed from the tipoff."

The Knicks (4-13) snapped a tie with the Nets (5-14) for most losses in New York, winning the game and the crowd with a dominant second half that had Spike Lee and the rest of the fans wearing blue and orange cheering perhaps the Knicks' most complete performance of the season.

Andrea Bargnani scored 16 before he was ejected in the fourth quarter, Knicks fans roaring in support of him standing up to Kevin Garnett.

Brook Lopez had 24 points and nine rebounds for the Nets, who again played without Paul Pierce, Deron Williams, or much passion in the second half.

"We're struggling but we're going to come out of this, man, that's the only way to think," Garnett said. "I'm not going to think anything else."

The game was nationally televised, as all four matchups are this season, but neither team had been giving fans much reason to watch. Nets coach Jason Kidd said Tuesday that both teams "stink," and Anthony not only agreed but added that the Knicks were the "laughingstock" of the league.

Nobody was laughing at the Knicks on this night.

New York made a season-high 16 3-pointers in 27 attempts (59 percent), rediscovering a stroke that has been missing all season after it set an NBA record for makes in 2012-13, and led by as many as 34 points.

Shumpert, who has been the subject of trade rumors and has struggled, hit five 3s and added six rebounds.

The Nets hung in while the Knicks made 16 of their first 21 shots overall and trailed by only seven at halftime

"You've got to give the Knicks credit. They came (for) the season shooting around 32 percent. Tonight they looked like the team of last year where they made a lot of 3s," said Kidd, who played for the Knicks last season. "When they started the game off it didn't seem as if they were going to miss. But we stayed the course."

Until the third quarter, that is, when their season-long woes in that period returned and the Knicks outscored them 34-16.

When the public address announcer urged fans to stand and cheer before the fourth, they responded by booing, clearly sick of watching Brooklyn get hammered over the previous 12 minutes yet again.

Tensions rose a couple of times, chiefly in the fourth quarter when Bargnani and Garnett became tangled as Bargnani fell to the court while trying to box out. Both players, along with Amare Stoudemire, were called for technical fouls, and Bargnani was hit with a second and thrown out shortly after when he appeared to say something toward Garnett after making a jumper.

Garnett wouldn't discuss the incident, saying "I don't understand Italian" -- though Bargnani insisted whatever he said was in English. He also downplayed the exchange.

"The most important thing is that we won the game, we played a great game and we've really got to start to build on this," Bargnani said.

There were also double technicals and words exchanged after Andray Blatche set a hard pick on Shumpert in the first half, but that was about all the fight the Nets showed on the way to their sixth straight home loss.

Both teams were booed during the introduction of starting lineups by split fan bases who are united in their early season disgust. The Nets believed they were a championship contender after acquiring Garnett and Pierce from Boston, the centerpieces of a roster that will cost more than $180 million in salary and luxury taxes. The Knicks are second to the Nets in payroll but had never gotten going after losing Tyson Chandler to a broken leg in their fourth game of the season.

But they were the better team right from the tip. The Knicks made 12 of their first 14 shots and were ahead 30-15 after Anthony's 3-pointer with 2:36 remaining in the opening quarter.


Game notes

There was a moment of silence before the game for Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, who died Thursday at 95. Commissioner David Stern called Mandela "one of the most powerful and inspirational leaders in the world and a great friend of the NBA." ... The Knicks will try to end their seven-game home skid Friday against Orlando.

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In last nights battle of NYC, the Knicks win and the Nets are in deep Doo-Doo. Jason Kidd won't survive this season. 30 point blowout in Brooklyn. Oofah.