Daily Sports Roundup
Saturday, February 20
Today in the Daily Sports Roundup: The red-hot Thunder roll into New York, while Seton Hall takes on West Virginia, and the No. 1 Jayhawks meet Colorado.
Tipping off on the hardwood . . .
There are just seven games on the NBA schedule for Saturday, with Washington at Toronto, Philadelphia at Chicago, Miami at Dallas, Indiana at Houston, Charlotte at Milwaukee, Sacramento at the Clippers, and Oklahoma City at New York. The Thunder have won seven straight games to sit at 31-21 SU and 33-19 ATS on the season; Kevin Durant and company beat Dallas 99-86 in their last game. The Knicks are 19-34 SU and 23-30 ATS after losing five straight games. New York spent the trade deadline clearing up cap space for a big summer spree.
On the college basketball schedule, top-ranked Kansas will get a visit from Colorado on Saturday afternoon. The Jayhawks (25-1 SU, 10-12-1 ATS) have won 11 games in a row, most recently knocking off Texas A&M 59-54 on Monday night. Cole Aldrich, Xavier Henry, and Marcus Morris each picked up 12 points for Kansas in that victory. The Buffaloes (12-13 SU, 10-11 ATS) got past Oklahoma 77-67 in their last game, with Cory Higgins scoring 18 points in the contest. Colorado fell 72-66 at home to Kansas when the teams met February 3.
No. 2 Kentucky will get a tough road matchup against No. 17 Vanderbilt on Saturday, while No. 4 Purdue hosts Illinois. Other games involving Top-10 teams on Saturday: No. 7 Kansas State at Oklahoma, and Seton Hall at No. 8 West Virginia. The Mountaineers (20-5 SU, 10-14 ATS) got past Providence 88-74 in their last game on Wednesday; Devin Ebanks scored 21 points for West Virginia on that night. The Pirates (15-9 SU, 6-12 ATS) have won three games in a row. Seton Hall beat St. John's 59-50 last game, with Jeff Robinson scoring 16 points.
Taking a trip around the rink . . .
Action on the ice at the Olympic men's hockey tournament on Saturday features Norway vs. Switzerland, Germany vs. Belarus, and Latvia vs. Slovakia. The Slovak team pulled off a major upset on Thursday, edging the Russians 2-1 in a shootout. Marian Hossa had Slovakia's lone goal in regulation time in that contest, while Jaroslav Halak stopped 36 of 37 Russian shots. The Swiss team came close to an upset on Thursday as well, but they ended up falling 3-2 in a shootout to Canada. Swiss netminder Jonas Hiller faced 47 shots in that defeat.
Today's Wagering Tips
Saturday, February 20
Lines off the board
Washington Wizards at Toronto Raptors – Chris Bosh (ankle) missed Friday’s game and is doubtful. Zydrunas Ilguaskas did not play Friday after being traded to Washington and is questionable.
Miami Heat at Dallas Mavericks – Dwyane Wade (calf) did not play on Friday and is doubtful.
Sacramento Kings at Los Angeles Clippers – Baron Davis (back) missed the team’s last game and is doubtful.
Line to keep an eye on
The total for the Thuder-Knicks game opened at 202 and can be found as high as 203 now. New York has played to five straight overs while Oklahoma City has posted three consecutive unders.
Who’s hot
The Thunder are winners of seven in a row, going 6-1 ATS during the streak.
Siena has won 18 of its last 20 games and are getting 7.5 points on Saturday.
Who’s not
The Tennessee Volunteers have dropped three straight ATS and are 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games.
New York has last five in a row, going 1-4 ATS in that time frame.
Key stat
55-12 – Home record for SEC basketball teams in conference play this season. South Carolina is getting 1.5 points at home to Tennessee on Saturday.
Injury that shouldn’t be overlooked
Texas Tech guard John Roberson injured his ribs during Wednesday’s 18-point loss to Baylor. Roberson co-leads the Red Raiders in scoring (15.2 ppg) and dishes out a team-high 5.4 assists per outing. Texas Tech is a 6.5-point home dog to the Longhorns on Saturday.
Notable quotable
"On average, bronze medalists are happier than silver medalists. Those who perform objectively better can actually feel worse than those who they outperformed. Counterfactual thinking or what might have been."
-- Said Victoria Medvec, a psychologist and university professor, on why winning the bronze is psychologically easier than finishing second-best.
Tips and notes
- Mike Dunleavy stepped down because as Jeff Van Gundy put it, “the players had tuned him out.” Kim Hughes hasn’t done much better as the interim coach with the Clippers going 0-5 SU and ATS under him. Chris Kaman was upset about the Marcus Camby trade saying the team dealt their “best defensive player” and said the coaching transition has been “tough.” Don't expect much effort from the Clips these days.
- UCLA guard Michael Roll said this week that when Nikola Dragovic and Reeves Nelson aren’t playing well the team “has a tendency to check out.” Both of these players' ppg average dips drastically during losses compared to wins. UCLA won as 3.5-point dogs versus Washington on Jan. 21 and Reeves and Dragovic combined for 27 of the team’s 62 points.
- Paul Casey cruised to 5 & 4 victories in all three rounds of play at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. He has not played holes 15-18 because of this and elected not to finish his round on Friday. Casey said, “I've played enough rounds of golf out here” and “Saving the energy is important.” He will face Stewart Cink, who has played 54 holes total, on Saturday. Casey is a -135 favorite with Cink getting +120 odds.