All it took was a 3-6 SU start by the New Orleans Hornets and former coach Byron was out of a job. It shifts the pressure onto general manager Jeff Bower’s shoulders and while it won’t be easy reversing the course, Bower feels that the team made the move early enough in the season to help mitigate damages.

The Hornets are hosting the Portland Trailblazers (-3) Friday night, one of nine games on the NBA betting card at online sportsbooks. Portland has been hot, winning each of their past four games straight-up and against the spread. These two teams split a four-game season series last season with each team winning once on the other's home floor.

New Orleans isn’t the only club facing turmoil in the first month of the season and reports out of New York are that Don Nelson, the second winningest coach in NBA history, stormed out of practice Thursday after an argument with one of his players.

Nelson, the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, has his team in the Big Apple to take on the Knicks (-4) and bettors have seen that line move up to two and-a-half points as the reaction to the news triggers a heavy wave of betting on the New York side.

Orlando (-15.5) is the big favorite on Friday’s basketball betting card, and in a surprising line move the winless New Jersey Nets (0-8 SU) seem to be getting a bit of attention. Odds maker originally posted this line projecting the Magic as the public favorite, looking to rebound off their loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday but the generous pointspread has attracted enough underdog bettors to shave the -16 down a hair. Offense has been the big problem for the Nets and the total in this game is down a point to 188.5.

Other big pointspreads Friday night including Dallas (-10) at Minnesota and Atlanta at Boston (-9).

The first game to tipoff tonight is Utah at Philadelphia (-2.5) and on the west coast b-ball bettors can get late action on Houston (-5) at Sacramento, the Lakers at Denver (-4) and Toronto (-2.5) in a rare road fav spot at the 3-6 Los Angeles Clippers. The Clip is 2-4 on their home court so far this year.