Jeff Alexander
1 Unit on Indiana Pacers -1
The Pacers have had no problem against the Pistons. Motivated by Tuesday's loss to Miami, I expect Indiana to continue its dominance in this series. The Pacers have won 7 of their last 9 games overall. Their only 2 losses during this stretch were a pair of close defeats to the Miami Heat. Indy has won 6 straight over Detroit with all 6 of those wins coming by at least 4 points. The Pacers are 8-0 ATS in the last 8 meetings in this matchup and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 meetings at Detroit. The Pistons limp into this one off 3 straight defeats, and they are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games as a home underdog. We'll take the Pacers tonight.
Black Widow
1* on Cleveland Cavaliers +11.5
The Cleveland Cavaliers will be looking to avenge their worst loss of the season when the Los Angeles Lakers make a visit Wednesday night. Cleveland lost to the Lakers 112-57 in L.A. on January 11th, which was clearly the low point of their season. Whatever pride the Cavaliers have inside of them will come out Wednesday when they host the Lakers. Los Angeles is a tired team right now and very vulnerable as this will be the final contest of a 7-game road trip for them. Clearly, they are waring down having lost at Orlando and at Charlotte by a final of 89-109 in their last two contests. This is the Lakers 5th game in 7 days, while the Cavaliers come in on 2 days' rest. The Lakers had won the first four games of this road trip and appeared to be playing like the champions they were the past two seasons. But their two most recent performances show how vulnerable they can be. The Lakers are 1-10 ATS (-10.0 Units) after covering 4 or 5 of their last 6 against the spread this season. Take the Cavaliers and the points.
OC DOOLEY
Georgia -2.5
This is a critical game for both sides as they are currently tied for second-place in the ultra competitive Eastern Division of the SEC Conference. But the fact of the matter is that Vanderbilt is more highly regarded in the national polls and in the every important RPI rankings, so this particular encounter is more important to the home team who currently is sitting on the NCAA “bubble”. For Georgia to even be on the bubble at this late stage of the season is an accomplishment as this school has not garnered an “at large” bid for the NCAA Tournament since way back in the 2002 campaign. The last Big Dance appearance of any kind for Georgia was in 2008 when they won a “tornado stricken” SEC postseason tournament to land an automatic qualifier spot. That particular SEC tournament had to be moved to Georgia Tech’s home court with NO fans in attendance after there was tornado damage done to the roof of the Georgiadome which is the home of the NFL Falcons. This is the second season where Mark Fox has been the Bulldogs leader and very quietly he has done one of the best coaching jobs in America turning around a moribound program in a very short period of time. Fox actually began talking to his players about building a tournament resume long before the season began. His Georgia players back in the month of August did not even know what a tournament resume was as they had never been in that position before. In this series Vanderbilt has owned Georgia on their own home floor (52-13) but this is a ROAD affair where things will be more difficult for the Commodores. In a January victory in this series, Vanderbilt was held by the officials as they nailed 25 different attempts from the free-throw line, but odds are they will not be getting nearly as many favorable calls this time around. In the past three years Vanderbilt is a negative 6-15 ATS after successfully covering the spread twice in a 3-game span