I'm feeling inspired after being swept by the books today. Which is why today I will deviate from my usual routine and post 2 picks instead of 1. The books are going to pay for those "wtf" games today. Now on to my picks:
line: ptb@hr 191
pick: 191 under
Going back to trends analysis:
- The under for Portland is 11-7 when playing on the road this season.
- The under for Portland is 5-1 after playing 3 consecutive home games.
- The under for Portland is 4-1 the last 5 games.
- The under for Houston is 17-11 at home.
- Head to head, the under is 4-0 on games played in Houston the last 3 seasons.
The second half of this season is all about playoff positioning. The Blazers and Rockets are #'s 4 and 5 respectively in the West. The Rockets now know that Tmac is out for the season. This means that their rotation is finally set. Battier and Artest will be logging more minutes and we all know what these 2 guys can do on D. On the Blazers side, it is also a well known fact that Mcmillan is a tough defensive-minded coach. I expect these young Blazers to play scrappy defense as well. Look forward to a defensive-type of ballgame tomorrow as these 2 teams jock for position to gain homecourt advantage in the 1st round of the playoffs.
Extra play:
line: mt@tr 210
pick: 210 over
Trends:
- The over is 16-8 for the Twolves against teams with a losing record this season.
- The over is 15-8 for the Twolves against teams with poor defense.
- The over is 7-3 for the Twolves on both the month of February and Tuesdays this season.
- The over is 4-1 for the Twolves in the last 5 games.
- The over is 17-9 for the Raptors against good offensive teams this season.
I would like to quote how Phil Jackson described the Twolves after their last meeting: "They want to get it to Telfair and Foye, get the ball up the court and find some shots,". He described the Twolves play as "loose net". The term means an "
NBA tactic of years past when home teams that wanted to run supposedly had loose nets through which the ball would speed so one of their players could grab it immediately after a made basket and get started back the other way". I believe this does not need further explanation. As for the Raptors, their GM is named Colangelo, the same guy who put together D'Antoni, Nash, Marion and Amare back in Phoenix and they just ran everybody out of the building. His philosophy is still the same. He traded for Marion and now we have a healthy Calderon at the point. Expect these 2 ballclubs to light up the scoreboards tomorrow my friends.
