Free Picks: Service Plays for Friday, January 7,2011

Marc Lawrence

Cleveland State at Butler
Play: Cleveland State

When one-loss Cleveland State takes on the Bulldogs at Butler Friday evening they will take the court with double revenge on their minds from a pair of losses suffered in this series last year. CSU is also 4-0 SU and ATS in Horizon League play this season. With Butler on a 1-6 ATS slide in games when playing off a straight up favorite loss, look for the Vikings to get their revenge here tonight. We recommend a 1-unit play on Cleveland State.

Sam Martin

New York Knicks at Phoenix Suns
Prediction: Phoenix Suns

Awful spot for the Knicks here, to are on the road in a letdown and lookahead sandwich against a high-scoring Phoenix team. New York will be on a high after beating a very good San Antonio team at home in their last game, and will also no doubt be looking ahead to playing the LA Lakers next. Phoenix will want to have a good showing here at home, especially against former teammate. We'll lay the big number and catch the Knicks sleepwalking!

Terron Chapman

New Orleans Hornets vs. Los Angeles Lakers
Play: Los Angeles Lakers -7.5

The play of the Los Angeles Lakers recently has not resembled that of a defending champion. It’s been inconsistent to say the least. After back-to-back victories over the Detroit Pistons and Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers will look to make it three in a row when they play host to the New Orleans Hornets Friday night at Staples Center.

This will be a rematch of a meeting just over a week ago (Dec. 29) in New Orleans which saw the Lakers power their way to a 103-88 victory. The Lakers outscored the Hornets 46-30 in the paint and I don’t see much changing in terms of resistance from the visitors end. The Lakers held the Hornets to just 42% shooting from the field, including 25% from behind the arc.

A change of venue doesn’t seem to bode well for the Hornets who have struggled on the road this season to the tune of a 7-10 mark away from the Crescent City. New Orleans is just 1-4 ATS on the road against teams with a winning record. The Hornets dropped both meetings in Los Angeles last season by double-digits.

The Lakers lack of focus has been a concern all season but don’t expect such Friday. The Lakers know they need to make a push and the upcoming schedule sets up for them to do so. Look for them to take advantage of an inferior Hornets team en route to a double-digit victory. Play on the Los Angeles Lakers (-) the points for 1 unit.

Jim Feist

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors
Play: Golden State Warriors -9½

Cleveland is terrible on the road, 3-15, and on a huge funk, 1-18 SU, 4-14-1 ATS the last 19 games. This is the start of a long road trip, a long way from home. The last game the Cavaliers gave up 62 points in the paint and allowed the worst 3-point shooting team in the league to shoot 50 percent from behind the arc and 56.8 percent overall. Golden State is showing some fight, 2-2 SU, 3-1 ATS the last four games, including two straight up wins as a dog over Charlotte and at New Orleans. They've also won 5 of the last 8 games. Play the Warriors!

Ross Benjamin

New Jersey Nets vs. Washington Wizards
Play: New Jersey Nets +5.5

In a game of two very lousy teams will will go against the worst of two evils. Washington is just 2-13 SU in their last 15 games. The Wizards are also a horrible 12-27 ATS in their last 39 games as a favorite. New Jersey comes into the game with a bit of momentum after knocking off the Bulls in their last game. Seems like an awfully generous number to pass up versus a favorite who's struggled just to get a SU win under their belt. Play on the New Jersey Nets plus the points as my free selection of the night.

Tom Freese

San Antonio at Indiana
Play: San Antonio

Indiana is 14-18 straight up this year. The Pacers are 2-8-1 ATS their last 11 games overall. Indiana is 3-7 ATS when their opponent scores more than 100 points in their last game. The Pacers are 0-5 ATS vs. Western Conference teams. San Antonio is 29-6 straight up this year. The Spurs are 9-4-1 ATS their last 14 road games. San Antonio is 12-5 ATS off an ATS win. The Spurs are 5-1 ATS their last 6 games overall. San Antonio is 7-2 ATS their last 9 road games vs. a team with a winning home record.

Brent Brooks

Wichita St -8

Yes, a chalky road favorite but at 8 I like the Shockers here - mainly because the Redbirds haven't impressed me thus far this season. This game could be tied at halftime and we'd still be in decent shape because the Shox are a powder keg waiting to go off at any point in the game. They've been crushing teams as they are on a mission this year to right a wrong. They believe it should have been them and not UNI making it to the dance last year. This year, their team returns intact while the Panthers are missing much of their offense from a year ago. The conference and perhaps more is there for the taking and WSU isn't messing around by playing down to the level of weaker teams. The "sharp" play is to go Redbirds and the points here but I think its the wrong play.

Fairfield -12

Its been a while since we rode the Marist Fade Train. They've actually shown a little something on the court in the last month in comparison to the start of the season. However, reality is coming to town in the form of the Derek Needham led Fairfield Stags. It took a few games for the Stags to catch their stride but now they have winning nine in a row and while perhaps the competition has not been impressive, neither (as we well know) are the Red Foxes. Marist can go on scoring droughts to beat the band. One of two of those and we could be looking at 20+ here at various points in the game.

Red Dog Sports

Siena at Canisius
Play: Siena

Siena is 8-2 ATS in the last 10 meetings. The Saints are not as strong as they have been in previous years but have won the last 10 meetings by 17, 12, 25, 4, 18, 28, 22, 18 and 21 points. Look for the road team to find a way to win on Friday night.

Tom Stryker

Chicago Bulls vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Play: Chicago Bulls +1

After ripping off five consecutive wins, Chicago fell flat on its face at New Jersey on Wednesday night. Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau sent a message to Carlos Boozer and benched the high-priced free-agent for his lack of defensive play for the entire fourth quarter. Without Boozer's inside presence, the Nets escaped with a 96-94 victory.

Expect a much different outcome for Da Bulls on Friday night. Philadelphia has posted a soft 1-5 SU and 2-4 ATS record in its last six meetings against Chicago and those five blemishes have all been blowouts by an average of 22.2 points per game. Even worse, at home in conference action matched up against an opponent that checks in without momentum off a straight up loss, the 76ers have struggled en route to a dismal 108-157 ATS record. In this role checking in off a straight up win, Philly slips to 45-76 ATS including a woeful 21-44 ATS provided they were victorious by seven points or more last.

One thing the Bulls have been able to do is bounce back on foreign courts when coming off a straight up loss. Since the 1990-91 season, Chicago is a profitable 77-43 ATS when priced as a road favorite or road dog of +2' or less provided it arrives off a straight up loss. In this role facing an opponent that owns a won/loss percentage of .410 or less, the Bulls improve to a powerful 44-21 ATS!

Coach Thibodeau sent a stern message to one of his players and it cost Chicago a victory. Rest assured, the Bulls and Boozer will respond. Take Chicago.

Chip Chirimbes

Houston Rockets vs. Orlando Magic
Play: Houston Rockets +9½

It's a matter of addition by subtraction for the Orlando Magic (23-12, #15-20) as they have won seven straight and have six 'covers' since trading away the most over-rated Vince Carter. Add that they are 7-1-1 ATS when favored by 7-points in their last nine. Houston has turned thing around after a slow start are 7-1 ATS in their last eight meetings with Orlando and 12-4 against the spread in their last 16 meetings.

EZWINNERS

New York Knicks +2.5

Amare Stoudemire faces his old team for the first time and I'm sure he will have a big game. Stoudemire has rejuvenated the Knicks while enjoying one of the most productive seasons of his career heading into this game. Phoenix is not the same team that they were with Stoudemire and the Suns are really struggling right now. Phoenix has been held under 100 points eight times already this season while posting just a 3-10 record since December 7th. The Suns were held under 100 points just twelve times last season. The Suns are only 1-4 against the spread in their last five games as a home favorite and New York is 10-2 against the spread in their last twelve road games. Take the points.

SPORTS WAGERS

CHICAGO –1½ +1.58 over Ottawa

Last years champs are on the outside looking in right now and they’re well aware of their need for wins. They discussed it before they lost to Dallas on Wednesday but still lost in the first of a four-game home stand. Chicago has the Sens, Islanders and Av’s on deck and these are three very winnable games and it starts here. The Blackhawks are healthy with zero players on the rack and what you can expect from them tonight is 60 minutes of in your face, determined hockey. The Sens have been off for six days and that’s way too long. They’ve dropped three in a row and scored four times over that stretch. Ottawa is still without Jason Spezza and its goaltending is a question mark every single night. Now Brian Elliott is under more pressure as the talk in Ottawa these days is giving their young Swedish goaltender Robin Lehner a shot. Almost every player on the roster, except for a few, has underperformed, shockingly in many cases. Whether that's because they can't play any better -- Milan Michalek (knee), Alex Kovalev (knee) and Filip Kuba (back) all came in off major offseason surgery, or don't want to is another question. The Sens are a very fragile team right now in peril and the Blackhawks have a great chance to bury this invader early. Play: Chicago –1½ +1.58 (Risking 2 units).

JR O'Donnell

Southern Ill. -1

SIU arena is a really tough tough place to play. The 8-6 Salukies will give the Creighton Blue Jays all they can handle @ home tonight. Let's play these Salukies -1 to hand the Blue Jays another L as they got pasted by the boys from SWMST on Tuesday by 12. The Blue Jays are imo a soft 10-5 ball club . These Salukies have owned the boards as the + 7 rebounding margin is big vs these smaller Blue Jays. The Salukies are the sharp side from our camp tonight. #'s check in here @ power rating variance of - 4 to the Salukies.

Jimmy Boyd

1 Unit on Washington Wizards -5

After falling to 0-17 on the road with a loss at Philly Wednesday, expect the Wizards to be extremely motivated when they take the floor at home tonight. The fact that Washington fell at New Jersey last month only adds to the motivation when it hits the floor this evening. New Jersey has been a terrible investment on the road, where it is just 3-16 this season. In fact, the Nets are 2-9 ATS in their last 11 road games and 2-7 ATS in their last 9 road games as an underdog of 5.0-10.5 points. NJ is also just 3-12 ATS as a road underdog of 6 points or less over the last 2 seasons, losing by 7.9 ppg in this situation. Washington is a respectable 8-8 at home this season and has had little trouble on its home floor against weak road teams. In fact, the Wizards are 9-3 ATS in their last 12 home games vs. a team with a road winning percentage of less than .400. Lastly, it plays to our advantage that New Jersey is coming off such an emotional win over Chicago. Consider that teams coached by Avery Johnson are 0-11 ATS all-time in road games following a close win of 3 points or less. Lay the points.