Teddy Covers

Orlando Magic @ Washington Wizards
PICK: Orlando Magic

Washington is fairly typical of most last place teams at this time of the year. When the Wizards have something that sparks them – like Barack Obama’s visit to the Verizon Center – they are capable of stepping up, bringing energy, and playing a good game. That’s exactly how they beat the Bulls by 23 in that contest. But without some sort of obvious spark, interim head coach Ed Tapscott has no way to motivate his squad, as evidenced by Washington’s other recent home games: a 31 point loss to San Antonio, an eleven point loss to New Orleans, an eight point loss to Philadelphia and a nine point loss to Atlanta that was garbage time throughout the fourth quarter.There is virtually no home court edge for the Wizards these days, playing in front of a half empty arena – we’re talking about a team that is 10-23 SU, 12-21 ATS at home this year, with no signs of improvement. Washington’s defensive effort is atrocious; their ball movement stinks and they aren’t working hard on the boards – this is, for all practical purposes, a ‘dead’ team here in March. The Magic have won the previous three meetings with the Wizards by a combined 49 points. Expect Dwight Howard to dominate the paint and the Magic’s perimeter shooters will rain three’s whenever they want to against this level of defense.

2* Take Orlando