Opposite Action Plays
Denver Nuggets
Tony George
Philadelphia vs. Yankees
Pettitte and Martinez are BOTH hittable. The Yanks are hot with the bats, but rest assured that pitching away from Utley is not the Yankees only issue to keep Philly from scoring. Philly can hit. When the Phillies go to the bullpen is when NY catches fire it seems and with no true closer or late inning set up guy the Phillies I feel will get lit up at some point tonight. Philly is 7-3 with overs as an underdog and Philly is 19-5-2 with overs in their last 26 games.
Play 1 Unit Over
Lenny Del Genio
Dallas vs. New Orleans
Playing in front of a national TV audience, this is almost "must-win" territory for the 1-3 Hornets, who host the Mavs Wednesday night. Lost in Dallas' incredible rally last night (led by Dirk's 29 fourth quarter points) was the fact they had scored just 52 points through three quarters. Playing in the 2nd night of back to backs is always tough in the NBA, but especially so after playing Jerry Sloan's Utah Jazz. We remember when these teams met in the playoffs two years ago and how badly Chris Paul dominated the now 36-year old Jason Kidd. Paul averaged 33.3 points, 12.5 assists and 8.0 rebounds against Dallas in 2008-09. This is New Orleans first home game in a week and they'll be ready. They have covered six of seven at home vs. Dallas and dominated this series overall with four straight home wins. Take New Orleans.
Stephen Nover
15 Dime Phillies +1.5
Doc's Sports
3-Unit Play Take Philadelphia Phillie +1.5 -110
3-Unit Play Take NY Yankees / Philadelphia Phillies Under 9
Nick "BookieKiller" Parsons
Miami vs. Washington
For a number of different reasons I feel the value in this matchup is on the home side:
Off their worst offensive effort of the season, I look for the Wizards to get back on track this evening in front of the hometown crowd. Alternating wins and losses, Washington is averaging 112.5 points on 53.7 % shooting in its two victories but 89.5 points on 41.9 % shooting in the two defeats.
This is a spot that Washington has always performed well in though, going 8-5 ATS over the last two seasons vs. good defensive teams which allow 91 points or less per contest.
On the other side of the court: Miami was 12 minutes away from opening with four straight wins for the first time since 2004-05 before falling apart down the stretch in Tuesday’s 104-96 loss to Phoenix; I expect a "letdown" tonight.
Miami allowed Phoenix to shoot 50.6 % from the floor and make 9 of 23 3-pointers (39.1 %)!
And it doesn't get any easier for D-Wade and company tonight when we find out that this is a spot that Miami has struggled in for a long time now; over the last two seasons the Heat are just 6-11 ATS as a road dog of three points or less.
Bottom line: The Heat swept the four-game season series from the Wizards last season, outscoring them by an average of 15.7 points; with Arenas back in the lineup, I look for Washington to play with a small amount of revenge in mind and feel that home court advantage can also not be overlooked in this instance; look for the Wizards to improve to a perfect 2-0 ATS at the Verizon Center this season! 9* Wizards.
Eric Degarde
2** Sacramento +5.5
1* Denver -9
Seabass
50* Phillies
30* Over
Power Play Wins
Washington Wizards -3
Dave Malinsky
3* PHILADELPHIA *First Half (1st FIVE innings)* over NY YANKEES
A bad line here, a very bad one. We do not need to say much more than that in reality, but in a game in which the Yankees have two clear advantages: the home field for certain, and the possibility of Mariano Rivera being far better than any Phillie reliever for the final outs, which we can take out of play. We will call Pedro Martinez over Andy Pettitte as a clear advantage at this price point, and make that our play. We peg Pettitte as clearly vulnerable. Despite the fact that the Yankees won Game #3 behind him on Saturday night he was nothing special, allowing four runs in six innings, including home runs from Jayson Weth and Carlos Ruiz, and logging 104 pitches, 45 of which missed the strike zone. That was his high pitch count since back in August, and that particularly matters on an evening in which he will work on three days rest for the first time since 2006. As patient as the Phillie lineup is, a quick second look makes them even tougher for Pettitte if he can not get near his A stuff. And even Pettitte is not sure that he can bring that. His response to struggling in Game #3? "Mechanically I felt a little bit off, just a click off, my release point didn't feel great. It was just a battle to get the ball in and out and move it around like I wanted to. I wasn't hitting my off-speed stuff for strikes like I like to do.? And what impact will the short turnaround have? "For CC it's a little bit easier because he's throwing so much harder and his stuff is so much better. But physically for me, it obviously is a little, just seeing how my body is going to feel on that short rest because I'm just not sure at my age or whatever ? I don't know how I'll feel. I know I felt terrible [in Game 3] and I was on six days' rest. I just, you know, am going to go as hard as I can for as long as I can." Not exactly a self-vote of confidence. Meanwhile Martinez is not going to be bothered by the pressure of this setting, and in 10 ?First Half? innings in the playoffs he has only allowed one run, that solo blast by Mark Teixeira in the fourth inning here last Thursday night. He comes in much fresher than Pettitte, and after finding the strike zone with 67.3 percent of his pitches in the first go-round, with more strikeouts than hits allowed, there is more than enough price being offered to earn out trust. So why only the First Five Innings? It is really quite simple, neither Ryan Madson nor Brad Lidge inspire confidence from us to get the final outs vs. this lineup in this ballpark, while having consecutive days off sets Rivera up to work two full innings again tonight, which negates the weaknesses that the Yankee set-up men bring. But with most key precincts having the First Half and Full Game lines so closely aligned, we get the benefit of that weak Phillie bullpen actually working for us in terms of the bargain we get to back Martinez.
Mike Lineback
4* Phoenix Suns +8.5
4* Phoenix/Orlando Magic Under 218.5
C-Star Sports
5000 Units Boston Minus the points over Minnesota
1000 Units Yankees over Philadelphia
50 Units Dallas/New Orleans over the total
Street Rosenthal
*200 Miami Heat -2
*200 New Orleans Hornets -4
*200 Atlanta Hawks -5
*200 Boston Celtics -12
*200 Columbus Blue Jackets Over 5.5
Trey Scott
*200 New Jersey Nets +9
GUARANTEED CAPPERS LOCK CLUB
10* HOUSTON +2
10* COLORADO -115
Inside Odds
4* Dime Play - Memphis +6
3* Late Steam - Indiana +5
2* Best Bet - Phoenix +8