Don Wallace Sports
4* Milwaukee -2.5
Bobby Maxwell
400-Unit NBA Early Season E-Z Winner - New York Knicks
New York struggled with Orlando last season and got slaughtered three times. The main reason is Orlando center Dwight Howard was able to do whatever he wanted in the middle. And when the Knicks would try to double down on him, the Magic sank uncontested three-pointers. With the addition of Amare Stoudemire, Howard isn’t going to be so free to do what he wants now. That’s why I’m going to grab the points and play New York in the first meeting between these two this year.
Stoudemire is 11-1 in his career against Orlando and he’s put up four straight double-doubles against the Magic, averaging 23.3 points and 12 rebounds when going head-to-head with Howard. Also look for big contributions from young Wilson Chandler who posted 22 points and 16 rebounds in the home-opener for the Knicks on Saturday, losing 100-95 to the Blazers.
We all know about Orlando’s last game, that 96-70 loss in Miami on Friday night when they shot just 30 percent from the floor and 16.7 percent from the three-point line and turned the ball over 16 times. Of course coach Stan Van Gundy decided to have an intense practice after that game, looking to improve the outside shooting that has them at 25 percent for three-pointers this season.
Shooting like that gives the Knicks a real chance to win this one, and will definitely get them the cover.
New York is on ATS surges of 4-1-1 as a home ‘dog of 5 to 10 ½ points, 16-5 on Tuesdays, 3-1-1 at home and 3-1-1 overall.
Stoudemire gives them the inside presence to contain Howard tonight. Go ahead and grab the points and play the Knicks.
Ben Burns
9* Middle Tenn. St -3
The Blue Raiders are 9-2 against Arkansas State and that includes a 38-14 blowout victory last November. The Blue Raiders were laying -10 or -10.5 points for that one. They enjoyed a massive 427-220 edge in total yards. While they have to play on the road for this year's meeting, I still feel that the Blue Raiders are the stronger team. Note that they returned 14 starters from last season's 10-3 squad while the Red Wolves brought back 11 starters from a team that went 4-8. The Blue Raiders entered this season with hopes of winning the Sun Belt. While they're still 2-1 in conference play, a loss to Troy made those hopes appear bleak. However, Troy was upset this past weekend. Closing as high as -17 point favorites, the Trojans were beaten 28-14 by UL-Monroe. That result gives Middle Tenn. State new hope. The Trojans will still hold the head-to-head advantage but the Blue Raiders now know that they could claim a share of the title by winning out, or that they could win the championship outright if some other SBC team beats Troy. That makes this a very big game, an opportunity which they can't afford to squander. While the Blue Raiders offense can be potent and strike quickly, the defense is coming off a game, prior to last week's bye. The Blue Raiders tweaked their defensive scheme prior to facing Louisiana-Monroe. The result? Six sacks, 11 tackles for losses and two interceptions; those were their first two INTs of the season against an FBS opponent. The big effort by the secondary prompted cornerback Rod Issac to note: "Now that we've got some interceptions, it's like we set a fire. Once you set that fire, you want it to continue to burn. We hope our interceptions last week were just the beginning of our fire. We want it to spread more and more, and we want to pour some gasoline on that fire. We want it to catch on and spread and just keep burning." Including last year's blowout win over Arkansas State, the Blue Raiders were 6-1 ATS (7-0 SU!) in November the past two seasons. On the other hand, the Red Wolves were just 1-7 ATS in their November games, during the same stretch. Its also worth noting that the Red Wolves are a dismal 1-9 SU/ATS the last 10 times that they played a game with a line in the +3 to -3 range. The Blue Raiders are 6-2 SU/ATS the last eight times that they were listed as road favorites of -3 points or less, including 2-0 SU/ATS the last two seasons. I expect them to pad those stats here.
10* Portland/Milwaukee Under 186
The Blazers lost their first game last night, falling 110-98 at Chicago. After that loss, Portland coach Nate McMillan noted: "...Defensively, I think we're playing soft..." That should lead to an increased emphasis on defense tonight. The Blazers are going to have to play well on that side of the ball as they'll be facing a Milwaukee team which has been extremely stingy. I expect a low-scoring affair. The Bucks have played three games. They've held all three opponents to "double-digits" in scoring. They've also scored in double-digits themselves in all three, making for some low-scoring contests. Their games have had final combined scores of 186, 181 and 186. While McMillan may have called his defense "soft" after last night's game, the Blazers are a very capable defensive team. Despite playing high-scoring teams like Phoenix and New York, Portland held all three of its previous opponents to 95 or fewer points. All three of those games stayed below the total. This will be the second time that the Blazers played back to back games. Previously, in the backend of the first b2b situation, they traveled to LA and limited the Clippers to 88 points, a 98-88 victory, one which stayed below the total. Looking at last year's game here and we see a score of 108-101. It would be easy to assume that was a shootout. That wasn't the case though. In fact, the teams had combined for only 83 points at halftime and the score was just 87-87 (174 points) at the end of regulation. In fact, they still only had 190 points at the end of the first OT period, before they combined for another 19 in double-OT. In other words, it was a very tough loss for those who had the 'under' and it was anything but a "shootout." The Blazers saw the UNDER go 21-13 (61.8%) the past two seasons, when they were coming off a game in which they allowed 105 or more points. If we can avoid OT, I expect those stats to improve here.
8* Toronto/Ottawa Under
Game: Ottawa Senators vs. Toronto Maple Leafs Game Time: 11/2/2010 7:05:00 PM Prediction: under Reason: I'm playing on Toronto and Ottawa to finish UNDER the total. Its either been feast or famine for the Senators offense lately. They've scored five goals in two of their last four games. However, in the other two games, they haven't scored a single goal. Facing a Leafs team which is playing very stingy defense right now, I feel that it may well be another case of "famine" for the Sens' offense here. The Leafs have allowed just five combined goals over their last three games. Unfortunately, for fans in Toronto, they've only scored three themselves. In fact, they've been shut out completely in back to back games. Not surprisingly, each of their last three games has fallen below the total. With all the Toronto media buzzing about the possibility of the Leafs getting blanked in three straight games for the first time since the 1920s, the players may be "squeezing their sticks" a little here. The longer they go without a goal tonight, the more the nerves are likely to kick in, potentially making it even harder to score. Looking back further and we find that the Leafs have allowed two or fewer goals in nine straight home games. The UNDER is 7-1 their last eight games here and 12-2 their last 14 here. This season's earlier meeting did manage to finish above the total, a 5-1 Toronto victory on 10/9. However, the UNDER is still a profitable 10-3, dating back to the start of the 2008/09 season, when these provincial rivals have faced each other. Given the Leafs recent play on home ice, don't be surprised if this one also proves lower-scoring than most will be expecting.
Teddy Covers
Atlanta Hawks
Rocketman
3* Miami Heat -16
Brandon Lang
Arkansas State +1.5
Andy Fanelli
New York Knicks
RED ZONE SPORTS
2* Orlando/NY Knicks Over 201
2* Mid. Ten. State -1.5
Anthony Redd
30 Dime Middle Tennessee State +1.5
Paul Leiner
50* Portland Over
Nick Bogdonavich
Bucks -2.5
Power Play Wins
Orlando Magic -7
Jimmy Boyd
3* Miami Heat -15.5
Totals 4 U
Top Play
UNDER ARK ST
Reg Plays
OVER NYK
UNDER MILW
Platinum Plays
Premier PIck (Top Play)
HEAT
300K Play
ARK ST
Reg Plays
OVER ARK ST
Atl Hawks
NYK
Milw