Buster Sports
Chicago at Winnipeg
Play: Winnipeg -103
The Jets have owned the BlackHawks this year and they will look for the season sweep tonight in Winnipeg. The Jets have beat them 4 straight and now come up in an excellent situation for tonight's game. This will be Chicago's 5th road game in a row and last game they went to OT to beat Minnesota. This will be the Jets second home game after a 4 game road trip and they have waited for the BlackHawks with an extra days rest. Even though the BlackHawks have massive revenge, we believe they might be looking ahead as well to tomorrow night's game with Edmonton that will be watched by all of Canada. Great spot for the home club and we will take them.
The Prez
New Orleans at Minnesota
Play: Minnesota -4
The scuffling New Orleans Pelicans travel north for the first of a six game road trip with a contest against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The game is schedule to tip at 8:00 p.m. ET at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
There is little to like about the current form of the Pelicans. The fan-base and the players have been arguably the most inconsistent 20 win team in the league and are coming off a test where they allowed one of the lowest scoring teams in the Association, the Utah Jazz, to earn a 127-94 victory in the Big Easy on Wednesday.
New Orleans broke a losing streak with a Monday night 111-106 win over Phoenix on Monday. New Orleans has performed poorly at times this season, Wednesday’s loss to Utah being a terrific example, but they have also found themselves defeating the likes of Cleveland and San Antonio in the same week just last month. The Pelicans continue to fight through nagging injuries. Shooting guard Tyreke Evans (ankle) sat out Wednesday and is questionable for tonight’s game at the Target Center.
The Timberwolves are led by defensive minded head coach Tom Thibodeau but their Achilles this season and the primary reason they are not close to the .500 mark this campaign is the squads defensive liabilities. The offense will be without Zach LaVine for the rest of the season after the former slam-dunk champ suffered an ACL injury last week. Minnesota signed veteran Lance Stephenson this past week and the hardnosed vet contributed six points in 20 minutes off the bench. The veteran swingman will look forward to some productive minutes after being released by New Orleans in early November.
Former Kansas Jayhawk, shooting guard Brandon Rush, has started the last three games in place of LaVine. Rush has reportedly become much more comfortable with his new role and expanded minutes and expecting more than his average of three points and porous 3-of-12 shooting in 26 minutes per event tonight is reasonable.
New Orleans’ injuries to their backcourt has resulted in a second straight season in which the Pelicans struggle to score from the perimeter. In the team’s loss to Utah on Wednesday night the backcourt hit only five threes in 24 attempts. Minnesota’s Achilles is perimeter defense and the Pelicans could finally score ten-plus three-pointers, which would help in their quest for a win.
Most will argue that the loss of LaVine limits the ‘Wolves scoring punch but this simply isn’t the case. The combination of and the absence of Shabazz Muhammad coming off the bench along with the trio of Rubio, Towns and Wiggins makes Minnesota a team capable of surpassing 110 point on any given night.
Despite the fact that both teams have won 20 and lost 33 this season the playoffs seem much more plausible for the Timberwolves and the energy they play with offers evidence they believe they still have a chance to be one of the eight teams being a part of the postseason tournament this spring.
Paul Bovi
Pelicans at TWolves
Play: Pelicans +3.5
Believe the Pelicans will hang very tough here against a T Wolves team that will surely miss the presence of Zach Lavine who went down with a season ending injury against the Pistons a few games back. Rubio will handle the entire load at point guard which takes them a few notches down on offense while their defense has not looked great. In their win over the Raptors, Toronto was 31 of 51 from inside the arc. The Wolves outscored the Raptors by 13 at the stripe. In the prior game the Heat shot 52% from the field overall while Dragic went 13 of 17 as Rubio was overmatched. AD has owned this team and the Wolves will struggle to contain him tonight. T
Bruce Marshall
Dayton +4
This result likely more important to the Big Dance hopes of Rhody, as 18-5 Dayton is sitting in a slightly better spot with the Selection Committee. But in another anticipated nail-biter similar to the earlier 67-64 Flyers' win, will take any available points with Archie Miller's bunch, which has dropped only 1 of its previous 5 in the desirable dog role. Dayton Gs were the difference in the Jan. 6 meeting, with one of Miller's key seniors, G Scoochie Smith, the key cog with 21 points.