Daily Sports Roundup
Sunday February 21
Today in the Daily Sports Roundup: The United States meets Canada on the ice, while Duke takes on Virginia Tech, and the Sprint Cup Series races at Auto Club.
Tipping off on the hardwood . . .
The NBA offers up nine games on Sunday, with Boston at Denver, San Antonio at Detroit, Memphis at New Jersey, Houston at New Orleans, Oklahoma City at Minnesota, Atlanta at Golden State, Sacramento at Phoenix, Utah at Portland, and Cleveland at Orlando. The Cavs, who reinforced themselves by picking up Antawn Jamison at the trade deadline, had their lengthy winning streak stopped by the Nuggets on Thursday. The Cavs and Magic last met on February 11 in Cleveland, with LeBron James tossing in 32 points in his team's 115-106 victory.
There are two ranked matchups on the college basketball schedule for Sunday, with No. 9 Ohio State at No. 11 Michigan State, and No. 3 Villanova at No. 19 Pittsburgh. As well, No. 14 Wisconsin hosts Northwestern, and No. 6 Duke gets a visit from Virginia Tech. The Blue Devils (22-4 SU, 16-8-1 ATS) won their fifth straight game last time out, beating Miami 81-74; Duke is now 14-0 SU and 13-3 ATS at home. The Hokies (21-4 SU, 10-8-1 ATS) have also won five straight games. Virginia Tech got past Wake Forest by a score of 87-83 on Tuesday night.
Taking a trip around the rink . . .
The final games of the preliminary round of the men's Olympic hockey event will be played on Sunday, with Sweden vs. Finland, Russia vs. the Czech Republic, and Canada vs. the United States. The Canadians got a tough game from Switzerland on Thursday night, needing a shootout to secure a 3-2 victory; they need to beat the undefeated Americans on Sunday to finish in top spot in their pool. The Russians were shocked 2-1 by Slovakia in a shootout in their second game of the tourney Thursday night, with Alexei Morozov scoring their lone goal.
Roaring around the track . . .
Finally, the Sprint Cup Series stages its second race of the season on Sunday, with the drivers taking the track in the Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Jimmie Johnson, who won the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club back in October, is listed as the 7/2 Vegas favorite for Sunday, with Jeff Gordon behind him on the list at 7/1 odds. Defending-champion Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards then sit at 8/1 odds to visit victory lane, with Tony Stewart at 10/1, and Kyle Busch at 11/1. Jamie McMurray, coming off a victory in the Daytona 500, is farther back at 40/1.
Sunday's Wagering Tips
Lines to keep an eye on
Villanova opened as a 1-point favorite over No. 21 Pittsburgh but that spread quickly jumped to 2 points in favor of the No. 3-ranked Wildcats. Nova has covered the last two in this series.
The total for the Cavs-Magic game opened at 196.5 and can be found as low as 194.5 now. Cleveland has played to five straight overs and the last five in this series have gone over.
The Spurs-Pistons total has dropped from an opener of 187.5 to 186. The under is 8-2 in the last 10 games of this series.
The Kings-Suns total plummeted from its opener of 218 to 216.5 shortly after appearing on the board. The last three games between this two have gone under and Phoenix has played to seven straight unders.
Weather to watch
Rain, a wind chill of 50 degrees and wind gusts from 25-30 mph created poor playing conditions at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana, Ariz., on Saturday.
Sunday’s 36-hole final match is scheduled to begin at 7:40 a.m. but the semifinal round between Camilo Villegas and Paul Casey must be completed first and they will tee off at 7:10 a.m. A 30 percent chance of showers is constant until 10 a.m. The wind is expected to kick up to 10-13 mph around noon and the chance of precipitation returns to 30 percent around 1 p.m. for the remainder of the day.
A snow storm is forecasted to hit the Midwest Saturday night and through Sunday morning. The inclement weather is expected to bring ice and 2-4 inches of snow by Sunday morning which could create traveling problems for some teams. Some states are expected to be in the 4-8 inches of snow range by Monday.
The Thunder played in New York on Saturday night and then had to fly to Minnesota for a game Sunday. If their travel plans get delayed at all they could be jetlagged for the game or it might be postponed all together.
Flights out of Chicago, Milwaukee and Kansas City on Sunday night could be delayed or possibly cancelled and especially early Monday.
Who’s hot
The Jazz are 16-2 SU and 13-2-3 ATS over their last 18 games.
Virginia Tech has won five straight and eight of its last 10, and is getting 13 points at Duke.
Who’s not
Villanova has failed to cover the spread in four of its last five games.
The Grizzlies are 2-8 SU and ATS over their last 10 games.
Key stat
11.1 – Average number of assists dished out by Jazz point guard Deron Williams over the last 10 games.
Injury that shouldn’t be overlooked
The Grizzlies bolstered their lineup defensively after acquiring Ronnie Brewer during the NBA trading frenzy. In his first game with the team Friday, Brewer partially tore his hamstring and will be out an indefinite period of time. Memphis gave up a future first-round pick for the former Arkansas Razorback. The Grizz are laying 4.5 points in New Jersey on Sunday.
Games of the day
Cleveland Cavaliers at Orlando Magic (-2, 194.5)
Boston Celtics at Denver Nuggets (-4, 198)
Notable quotable
"I don't like losing, I think, more than anything else. I believe I can play this game pretty good. I like this format. As you said, my mental toughness is pretty strong, it's one of the key parts of my game.”
-- PGA tour member Ian Poulter said about why he is such a good match play player.
Tips and notes
- Apparently some of the Celtics were unhappy about trading Eddie House away for Nate Robinson. Doc Rivers said, “I didn’t think we needed to make changes” and Ray Allen said “I didn’t think we were bad.” Robinson is expected to be a scorer for Boston, the same role House had. Rivers also mentioned Robinson was already “lobbying for playing time.” It will be interesting to see how Robinson fits in to the Celtics mix.
- Antawn Jamison said he was “willing to sacrifice numbers, minutes, starting” if he could win a championship with Cleveland. He didn’t start in his Cavs debut Friday, went 0-12 from the field and played 26 minutes. Jamison said on Thursday that the biggest obstacle on the new team would be learning the terminology and when to cut. Clearly, it will take some time for Jamison to adjust to his new surroundings and Cleveland is in jeopardy of dropping three straight Sunday.
- Ian Poulter won his WGC-Accenture semifinal match on Saturday after 12 holes which means he got an afternoon’s rest before he has to play in the 36-hole championship round Sunday. The other two players are still tied through 23 holes and will determine a winner Sunday morning. Poulter was Nick Faldo’s captain’s pick for the last Ryder Cup because of his match play success, where he is 17-7 in his career, and will be well-rested heading into Sunday.