Nick Bogdanovich
Medium - LA Lakers (+5½) over Nuggets
Jake Timlin
Friday's Action
1000♦ Denver Nuggets
Take Denver minus the game six points.
Going big and doing so for a reason as I fully expect for the Nuggets to roll by double digits at home tonight. You see if there is one team in the playoffs knows how to bounce back it’s the Nuggets as so far in these playoffs Denver is a perfect 4-0 SU/ATS when following a loss. Now factor in that Denver with their 19 point game four win the Nuggets are 40-9 straight up on the season, including 7-1 at home in the playoffs and you start to see why I expect for this series to head back to Los Angeles for a game seven on Sunday. Meanwhile, helping out will be the Lakers who have yet to prove they can win important back to back games this postseason (remember their 15 point loss at Houston in game six last round) and I don’t see that trend changing tonight. Flat out, like most people I look for this series to game seven games and it will as Denver stays alive thanks to a double digit burial of the Lakers tonight at home.
All Denver!
200♦ Boston Red Sox
Meanwhile, on the diamond I just can’t pass up on the Red Sox tonight as they open up the weekend series against the Bluejays a winner. Yes backed by Wakefield who has won 4 of this last 5 starts and facing a Toronto team that has now lost their last 9 games tonight’s call on Boston is a no brainer. After all it was Wakefield’s 2-1 victory ten days ago that started the Bluejays losing skid as Boston sweep a three game series at home. Well continuing to make life tough for the Bluejays take the Red Sox as they open their weekend series north of the border with a easy win.
All Boston!
Wayne Root
CC - Denver Nuggets
Mill - San Diego
Billionaire - Clev Indians
DESTROY THE BOOK SPORTS
5/29/09- Friday
NBA
20*DESTROYER GOY DENVER-5
MLB
10*NL GOM ATLANTA-127
7*TEXAS -102 GM1 OF DH
7*TAMPA BAY-135
5*CHW/KC OVER 9
5*HOU/PITT. UNDER10
Smart Money
05/29/09
MLB Wiseguys just took #956 Pittsburgh.
MLB Wiseguys just hit #961 San Diego OVER
Mike Rose
5* Det Over 10.5
3* Cleve Over 9
3* Cinn -12
2* Atl -25
2* Sea +62
Mike Lineback
NBA | May 29 '09 (9:05p)
Los Angeles Lakers vs Denver Nuggets Total
208½ ov-109 at 5dimes
Mikey Sports
TOP PLAY
Florida Marlins +155
SportsOddsAndPicks
NBA Playoffs
OVER 209 POINTS LA Lakers at Denver
Major League Baseball
Detroit at Baltimore OVER 10.5
BOSTON -130 (with Wakefield) over Toronto
ASA
Lakers at Nuggets
Pick: Under 209.5
I’m pretty confident we won’t see a 78 point fourth quarter as we did in the last game played in Denver. Going into the 4th quarter of that game the two teams had combined to score just 143 total points which had it on pace to say WAY below the posted number. In four of the five games of this series the two teams have combined for less points per game than the posted total of 209 on tonight’s game.
We mentioned in our last pick on this series (under in Game #5…winner) that the Lakers were going to focus on getting the ball inside on offense which typically means a slower paced game. That’s exactly what they did as the L.A. ‘bigs’ (Gasol, Bynum and Odom) combined to shot 50% from the field in scoring 42 points. For the game the Lakers scored 54 points in the paint and shot over 48% as a team.
Going on the road we expect the Lakers to stick to what worked so well in the last game which will keep this game from being high scoring. You can also add in the fact that the Lakers have shot just 41.5% in their last game on this court so don’t expect the Lakers to eclipse 100 points tonight.
Both defenses have played well as the Lakers are allowing just 42.9% shooting in this series while the Nuggets are allowing just 44.3% in the same five games. On the season the Nuggets allowed foes to shoot just 43.6% in Denver and they’ll put the clamps on L.A. tonight.
Ten of the last twelve meetings between the Lakers and Nuggets have stayed ‘under’ the total The Lakers have played ‘under’ in 8 of their last nine versus a Western Conference foe. We side with the ‘under’ in this game.
Mark Franco
LA Lakers at Denver
Play: Over 209
Although most trends point to the under I think this game will be played at a high pace and we have seen both teams lack effort on defense. If this game gets physical we will have both teams going to the line and that should add to the point total. The over is 11-5 in the Nuggets last 16 home games.
Joe Nelson
LA Lakers at Denver
Play: LA Lakers +5.5
Denver has a team capable of knocking out the Lakers but the opportunity was missed. Losing narrowly in games 1 and 3 will prove costly as the Lakers are back in control of this series and delivered an impressive game 5 win. Los Angeles did not shoot particularly well in game 5 including going 3-16 from 3-point range and with 16 turnovers it was far from a clean game. The Lakers delivered when it counted however and the favorite has some swagger back while catching great underdog value in game 6 at Denver. This spread has been adjusted several points from just earlier in this series and is way off the regular season numbers. The Nuggets have been a tough home team but the Lakers have been able to win in this venue. The pressure is completely back on Denver and the Nuggets have proven they are not a team that will deliver in crunch time with several costly late game mistakes already in this series. Phil Jackson also has a huge advantage over George Karl in this coaching match-up as Jackson has had many teams in this situation and Karl is best known for some of his blunders in postseason games. This has been a very evenly matched series and another close game should be expected with the underdog Lakers in a much better position to take the cash tonight.
Tony George
KC Royals
Rocketman
Seattle Mariners
Marc Lawrence
Cleveland Indians