Free Picks: Service Plays for Tuesday, November 23,2010

John Ryan

Chicago Bulls at Los Angeles Lakers
Prediction: Los Angeles Lakers

5* graded play on the Lakers s they take on the Chicago Bulls set to start at 10:30 PM ET. Our proprietary sports handicapping model and simulator shows a high probability that the Lakers will win this game by 10 or more points. Supporting this graded play is a system that has produced a record of 52-22 ATS for 70.3% winners since 1996. Play on favorites of 3.5 to 9.5 points after 1 or more consecutive unders facing an opponent after 6 or more consecutive unders. Lakers are a powerhouse team again this season sporting a 12-2 record and have done it with a relentless offense that is ranked first in the NBA scoring 112.5 points per game. Moreover, they are allowing 101.2 points per game and have an 11.3 points per game differential. This differential ranks first with San Antonio posting a 9.5 PPGD and Miami third posting 7.9 PPGD. There is a very high probability that the Lakers will score more than 105 points in this game. Chicago is just 9-24 ATS (-17.4 Units) when they allow 105 or more points in a game over the last 2 seasons. Take the Lakers.

Tom Freese

Cleveland Cavaliers at Indiana Pacers
Prediction: Cleveland Cavaliers

Indiana is 6-6 straight up this year. The Pacers are 1-6 ATS their last 7 meetings with Cleveland. The Pacers are 1-6 ATS their last 7 games off a straight up win of more than 10 points. Cleveland 5-7 straight up this year. The Cavaliers are 4-1 ATS their last 5 road games. Cleveland is 4-1 ATS when playing with two days of rest.

Frank Jordan

Temple vs. Miami Ohio
Play: Miami Ohio +6.5

Temple is 8-3 overall and 5-2 in the MAC as they head to Ohio to take on Miami. Miami Ohio is 7-4 overall but 6-1 in MAC play. Miami Ohio is 3-1 at home and looking to finish strong and get to a good bowl game. Two of Temples three losses have come on the road. Look for Miami Ohio to protect the homefield and win with a late TD. Play Miami Ohio

David Chan

Cleveland @ Indiana
PICK: Cleveland +5

It's payback time for Cleveland. The Cavaliers lost at home just 10 days ago to Indiana.

Danny Granger shot an amazing 13-of-21 from the floor in that victory. The Cavaliers were missing point guard Mo Williams and Anderson Varajao, one of their best rebounders and defenders.

Cleveland has all hands on deck this time around. Granger is an excellent player, but don't expect another shooting performance like that.

Indiana is in a letdown spot traveling home after stunning Miami, 93-77, in South Florida last night. The Pacers are an up-and-down team already on their fourth starting lineup.

The Cavaliers have covered six of the past seven times at Conseco Fieldhouse. They just got through meeting San Antonio and New Orleans on the road. So this is a step down for them.

Scott Spreitzer

Chicago @ L.A. Lakers
Pick: L.A. Lakers -8.5

Los Angeles is on a four game win streak after dropping two in a row. They've won those games by an average score of 112.5-95.3, covering all four. Tonight, they'll host the Bulls, an organization they have thoroughly dominated. The Lakers are 8-1 SU, 7-2 ATS the last nine times they have met, including six straight outright winners. Chicago enters having won five of six, but they have done it with defense rather than running teams out of the arena. Tonight, I suspect they'll be no match for a Laker team that rested their starters for long minutes in their Sunday night blowout win over Golden State. Los Angeles held a 35-point lead after three quarters, turning the win over the Warriors into virtually a glorified practice for the starters. With players like Gasol and Bryant playing 30-minutes of less, the Lakers will be well rested, not having truly battled since Friday. On fresh legs, the Lakers will force the tempo, forcing Chicago into playing "keep up" basketball. And as mentioned above, the Bulls have been getting it done on the defensive end. Bad matchup. As far as the "techs" are concerned, the Lakers are on a 5-0 ATS run against teams with a winning SU record. We'll lay the points with the Lakers on Tuesday night.

Jim Feist

Chicago Bulls vs. Los Angeles Lakers
Play: Chicago Bulls +9

The young Chicago Bulls are flexing their muscles, in first place, with Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah. They are No. 3 in the NBA in rebounding and 9th in scoring (101.5 ppg). Gibson had 17 points and a career-high 18 rebounds before fouling out with under a minute to play, Derrick Rose scored 22 points, and the Chicago Bulls rallied from a 12-point, third-quarter deficit to beat the Dallas Mavericks 88-83 on Friday night. They are 3-1 ATS their last 4 as a dog. The talented young kids will come right at the defending champs. Play the Bulls.

VEGAS EXPERTS

Detroit Pistons at Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks certainly cannot be trusted in this role. They are 13-34 ATS in home games since the start of last season and that includes a perfect 0-8 ATS mark when laying 9.5 to 12 points, a price range they find themselves in tonight against the Pistons. Detroit scored 115 points in its last game.

Play on: Detroit

Jimmy Boyd

1 Unit on Atlanta Hawks -2.5

Motivated by last night's embarrassing loss to Boston, look for the Hawks to bounce back strong tonight. Atlanta has been a tough matchup for the Nets because of its superior athletic ability. This has led to 4 straight wins over New Jersey by an average of 23.5 points. Atlanta has played its best basketball on the road, where it is 5-1 SU and ATS this season. Those 5 wins have come by an average of 10.0 points. Lastly, Atlanta is a perfect 10-0 ATS in road games after failing to cover 4 of its last 5 against the spread the last 3 seasons, winning by an average score of 105.5 to 94.3 in this situation. Lay the points.

Matt Fargo

La Salle vs. Providence
Play: La Salle +5.5

This is a Big East vs. A-10 matchup and naturally the Big East team is favored and by a rather small amount. Providence should not be laying points to many teams and the small number here is getting a lot of action on the Friars. In their second lined game this season and first against a decent team, the Friars barely escaped Yale as they won by three points as -19.5-point favorites. This is the first game away from home for Providence after going 4-10 away from home a season ago. LaSalle has started the season at 3-1 with the loss coming at Baylor by only 10 points and while it was a defeat, it was a very respectable one. The Explorers bounced back with two wins after that and this is a team that could make some noise in the Atlantic Ten this season. This team was hit extremely hard with injuries last season but they brings back four starters including the best player that will be on the floor today, center Aaric Murray, who is a sure fire NBA player. Murray is averaging 18.8 ppg and 8.5 rpg while shooting 56.2 percent from the floor and 91.3 percent from the free throw line. Providence has no one that can match up as Bilal Dixon being the closest but Dixon has not faced anyone like this yet. The only new player in the rotation is point guard Earl Pettis, a transfer from Rutgers, and he showed great ability for the Scarlet Knights before leaving. Guard Ruben Guillandeaux missed a lot of last season with injuries and is averaging 18.2 ppg in his return. Creating turnovers is an issue for Providence and it is 3-16 ATS in its last 19 games after forcing opponent to commit eight or fewer turnovers. Also, it is 9-25 ATS in its last 34 games after leading its previous game by 15 or more points at the break. LaSalle meanwhile is 18-9 ATS in its last 27 games against teams allowing 64 ppg or fewer. This game goes early in Cancun, Mexico and an outright upset is far from out of the question in this matchup. 3* LaSalle Explorers

Tony George

Chicago Bulls vs. Los Angeles Lakers
Play: Los Angeles Lakers -8.5

They have just destroyed 4 teams and Chicago in trouble here with a fontcourt with injury issues (Boozer and now Gibson). Chicago's low post play and frontcourt are suspect in this match up, and that's what the NBA is all about when capping, man to man matchups and Odom and Gasol will have a huge night.

Until the speeding train gets knocked off the track, I am going to ride the hot streak with LA, because when they are in sync and expose a weakness in an opponent, they are unstaoppable. Scoring 113 ppg their last 5 and hitting 50% from the floor..wow!

Free Lean on the Lakers tonight, not afraid of laying the wood in this match up.

Craig Trapp

Morehead State vs. Ohio State
Play: Ohio State -18.5

This OSU team might be the most athletic group of players in the nation. This team plays a ton of minutes from Freshman but 3 of these have played with each other for last few summers on AAU teams. This squad will absolutely lay the wood. This same OSU team went to FLA and won by 18. No way MS has the firepower to stay within 20 pts.

SPORTS WAGERS

Charlotte +1.15 over NEW YORK

Talk about a difference in styles and this is about as extreme as it gets. Mike D’Antoni and his speed game vs Larry Brown and his methodical, slow it down to a crawl game. There are some other interesting aspects to this game as well. Raymond Felton gets his first chance to play against his former coach and team after Brown (and MJ) basically gave up on him by not wanting to pay him his worth over the summer. When asked what kind of effort the Bobcats made in keeping him, Felton snapped, "There's no need to even talk about that. I'm in New York now. That question is irrelevant. I'm a New York Knick now. I look at it as a business. I don't want to dwell on the reasons." Felton is from the Charlotte area and he has about 500 friends and family attending tomorrow’s rematch in Charlotte, including his ill grandmother, who has never seen him play live in the NBA. Tonight the Knicks return home after its most successful west coast swing since 1998. They won the last three games of the trip over Sac, Golden State and the Clip Joint. Big deal. Fact is, the Knicks are 1-4 at home and Felton will be absolutely more concerned with tomorrow’s game than tonight’s match. Felton is key to the Knicks success. He was a one-man wrecking crew on the road trip. In order for the Knicks to win they have to score a lot of points because defense is not in D’Antoni’s vocabulary. That’s going to be difficult tonight after returning home against a team that thinks defense first. Furthermore, the Bobcats are slowly getting it together. They come in 5-8 but they’re not a below .500 team. They’re deep, they have more scorers than they’ve had in a long time and after opening the year 1-6, they’ve won four of its last six games with its only two losses in that stretch coming against the red-hot Spurs by four and the just as hot Jazz by a single point. Larry Brown wants this one badly and his guys will be ready. This one could get ugly, as the Cats are so much better than its record indicates and they’re hugely undervalued here in a very favorable spot. Play: Charlotte +1.20 (Risking 2 units).

Cleveland +1.60 over INDIANA

The Pacers are coming off consecutive games over the Magic and Heat and they played their hearts out in both. On Saturday they lost by just four points to Orlando and last night they went into Miami and ripped that team apart by beating them by 16 and allowing just 77 points in the process. Now the Pacers will play its third game in four days and the tail end of back-to-backs after exerting every ounce of energy in back-to-back very strong efforts. The Pacers have rotated wins and losses over its last seven games and that trend is likely to continue here. The Cav’s come in after an ugly 24-point loss in San Antonio on Saturday one day after nearly beating the Hornets in New Orleans. They’ll be much more prepped to play the vulnerable Pacers after two games against two juggernauts. The Cav’s bench has been terrific and if they can get a decent performance out its starting five they’ll be in a great position to win this one. Also note that the Cav’s were beaten by 14 points at home by these same Pacers 10 days ago. The situation and price calls for a play on what should be a very live pooch. Play: Cleveland +1.60 (Risking 2 units).

EZWINNERS

Atlanta Hawks -3

Atlanta has been a disappointment so far this season but they have been disappointing because they have failed to beat the good teams in the league. Atlanta has beat up on the weak teams in the league and this is a great match up for them to do so again. The Nets are back to their old losing ways and have dropped eight out of their last ten games. The Hawks have won four straight meetings with the Nets and the games have not been close with the Hawks winning by an average of 23 points per game. Atlanta creates multiple match up problems for New Jersey and they have the size to match up with New Jersey top scoring threat center Brook Lopez. New Jersey is only 2-5 against the spread in their last seven games as a home underdog of 4.5 points or less and I expect those struggles to continue. Lay the points with Atlanta.

JR O'Donnell

NJN / ATL Under 189.5

"Embarrassing" is the way Hawks coach Larry Drew summed it up after last night's ugly 99-76 loss to the boys from Beantown. Actually down 26 in the first Q. JR O is buying into & riding that "NBA SHARP" line move here as the game opened @ 192 and was immediately pounded down to 189.5. The game tonight will be a very slow paced and a hard fought battle as the starters for the Hawks are rested and will play some Defense vs these New Jersey Nets. This New Jersey crew have been on the road for 8 days and now comes home before traveling to the Celts tommorow. The Under is a smooth 80% prop play here in Atlanta's last 10 games following a ATS loss !! The Under checks in easy tonight boys!!! This game stays in the high 170's