After opening the Playoffs at just 2-2, the Lakers have now won four straight games. But of their four wins, only one came easily. And that was their 111-87 win over Oklahoma City in Game 5 of that series. Their other three wins came by just 1, 5, and 8 points. Los Angeles held home court by winning the first two games over Utah, but again, neither win was easy. And, in fact, the Jazz were in position to steal either game and quite easily could

Atlanta was embarrassed by Orlando in Game 1. The Hawks lost by a whopping 43 points (114-71) in a performance that may go down as the worst loss in NBA Playoffs history. However, Atlanta

San Antonio has one of the deepest rosters in the NBA. The Spurs played 9 different guys at least 10 minutes or more in their 111-102 Game 1 loss to Phoenix on Monday night. Nine of those ten guys scored points, and despite the big three of San Antonio (Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker) doing the bulk of the scoring with 20 points or more apiece, the Spurs are more than capable of getting other guys to contribute. San Antonio

Atlanta comes into tonight

Boston gave away a golden opportunity to steal Game 1 after they blew an 11-point third quarter lead. The Celtics controlled that game for three and a half quarters, especially on the defensive end of the court. Boston

Tampa Bay continues to hit the ball well as they scored eleven runs in their 11-1 win over the Royals on Thursday night. Tonight, Brian Bannister gets the start for Kansas City. Bannister is 1-1 with a 4.13 ERA, but he

Utah once again showed a huge home/road dichotomy this season. At home, the Jazz went a fantastic 32-9 during the regular season. And they showed that dominance in the last two games as they beat Denver by 11 and 12 points. But on the road, they once again played mediocre basketball and went just 21-20. Their road weakness was evident in Game 1 when the Nuggets handed the Jazz a 13-point loss (126-113). That double-digit loss was no fluke because Utah hasn

Aside from their 23-point loss (121-98) in Game 4, Chicago hasn

Atlanta played one of their worst games of the season in Game 3 on Saturday night. The Hawks scored just 89 points, but they actually needed a 32-point fourth quarter just to reach that mark. They only scored a total of 57 points over the first three quarters while scoring 21 points or less in all three of those quarters. Atlanta was ice cold from the floor; the Hawks shot just 39.1% (34-87) from the field and a dismal 20% (3-15) from three-point land. Atlanta

Utah played another inspired game on Friday night in their 105-93 win over Denver in Game 3. The Jazz did it once again without two starters (Andrei Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur) on the court which is certainly a credit to the team. In the series opener in Denver, Okur left after tearing his Achilles and that allowed the Nuggets to pull away to 126-113 win. In Game 2, Utah really stepped-up their performance and pulled off the upset as a 7-point underdog. Now we often see that in sports when a key guy goes out, the team rallies in the first game without him and more often than not win the game which happened in this case with the Jazz. The following game is where the team regresses, and most often lose because they can

Of all the NBA Playoffs series

Los Angeles had this series in-hand after winning the first two games at home. And they looked liked they were going to have a strangle hold on it when they were leading by 9 points mid-way through the third quarter in Game 3. But the Thunder made an in-game defensive adjustment that took the Lakers by surprise and turned the whole game around. Oklahoma City put Kevin Durant on Kobe Bryant, and Durant did one heck of job forcing Kobe into a ton of bad, off-balance, forced shots. The Lakers weren

Kansas City's Luke Hochevar gets to see the Twins for back to back outings as the Royals host the Twins tonight. Hochevar has won two straight outings including a win over the Twins last week. Despite getting the win, he didn

The loss by Dallas in Game 2 was of no surprise to us as we played San Antonio in that game. The Spurs were in a terrific bounce back spot after out-playing Dallas in the series opener despite losing the game on the scoreboard. Game 1 was played with a very quick whistle that favored Dallas greatly as the Mavericks shot 20 more free-throws (34-14) than San Antonio. However, the last game was officiated fair and square with the Mavs attempting 22 free-throws and the Spurs attempting 20.

San Antonio

Of all the NBA Playoffs series

Oklahoma City is not your typical 8 seed. The Thunder won 50 games this season, and they should really be more of a 4 or 5 seed. However, the West was extremely strong this season and because of that, Oklahoma City was relegated to the bottom seed. This team has played fantastic basketball all season long, and there

Utah

Chicago was in a terrible scheduling spot on Saturday afternoon. The Bulls had just finished a frantic end to their regular in which they needed to win on the final day in order to just make the playoffs. They then had a quick turnaround with little time to get ready for Cleveland. There was reason to expect Chicago to have little in the tank, and that certainly was the case early in the ballgame. The Cavaliers jumped on the Bulls quick as they led by 14 points (32-18) at the end of the first quarter. But what Chicago did during the rest of the game was quite impressive.

Over the final three quarters of the game, the Bulls actually out-scored Cleveland 65-64. Chicago also made a big late run as they cut Cleveland

If you watched Saturday's game between the Cardinals and Mets, you saw pretty much everything you could possibly see in a baseball game. Position players had to pitch and pitchers had to play the outfield because the game went 20 innings in a 2-1 Mets win. Things should calm down on Sunday night as Adam Wainwright takes the mound for the Cardinals. Wainwright is 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA on the season after shutting down the Reds and Astros. The Mets lineup is on par with those teams as they've scored just 23 runs in their last seven games. They are hitting .240 as a team and have struggled against the ace of opposing teams.

John Maine might be on his way out of the Mets rotation if he has another bad outing. Maine is 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA in two starts giving up 12 runs and 15 hits in 8 innings of work. Last year, Maine pitched in St. Louis in April and lost 5-2 giving up all five runs and seven hits in only 5.7 innings. Albert Pujols (5-11), Yadier Molina (3-9), Matt Holliday (4-7) and Colby Rasmus (2-3) all hit Maine the hardest. In a game like this, Wainwright is more likely to stick around longer than Maine as both sides taxed their bullpens on Saturday afternoon leaving a lot of the shoulders of the starters.

Play CARDINALS (-1.5 runline).

Charlotte is a young team that lacks any playoff experience together. In fact, the Bobcats are making their first appearance in the playoffs as a franchise. The Bobcats season took a positive turn when they traded for Stephen Jackson. Prior to his arrival, Charlotte

Before the season began, we gave you Luke Hochevar as a pitcher to back this season. So far, he's shown increased velocity and is sporting a 1-0 record with a 2.84 ERA. Hochevar will make his first start against a team other then Detroit. The righty has made four starts against the Twins and he's been pretty solid in those games. Hochevar got the win on June 29th of last season after throwing seven shutout innings while giving up just two hits. Michael Cuddyer (2-11), Jim Thome (2-9), Delmon Young (2-8), Denard Span (1-6), Brendan Harris (0-5), Nick Punto (0-4) and Justin Morneau (0-4) all have had little success against Hochevar.

Carl Pavano has made two stellar starts so far this season, but we don't think his form holds this afternoon. Pavano is 4-4 with a 6.80 ERA in eight starts against the Royals in his career. Kansas City is hitting .327 as a team against Pavano with Jason Kendall (9-26), Billy Butler (9-21), David DeJesus (7-18), Alberto Callaspo (8-18), Jose Guillen (5-10) and Yuniesky Betancourt (3-9) doing the best. So far on this road trip, the Royals have either won or lost by one run in every game except for one. They are hitting .303 as a team and hit even better on the road with a .340 batting average. We

Utah once again showed a huge home/road dichotomy this season. At home, the Jazz went a fantastic 32-9. But on the road, they once again played mediocre basketball and went just 21-20. Now their road record was better than in year

Milwaukee was one of the hottest teams in the NBA after the All-Star break. The Bucks went 22-9 over that stretch and they did it without their best player Michael Redd who suffered a season-ending knee injury. And they were also without Andrew Bogut for their final seven games after he had season-ending surgery for a trio of injuries. However, things really caught-up to the Bucks over the final two weeks of the season, especially when they faced the better teams in the league.

The Bucks were able to beat Chicago in the first game after losing Bogut, but a 79-74 win wasn

The Dodgers offensive juggernaut will get one of its biggest tests of this early season when it faces Tim Lincecum and the Giants. Lincecum is 2-1 with a 3.49 ERA in six starts against the Dodgers, but the right hander hasn

Chicago needed a big run down the stretch just to make the playoffs, and in fact, they needed to win at Charlotte on the final day of the regular season to punch their ticket. The Bulls had to exert a ton of energy and emotion, and because of that, there

Detroit brings a 6-3 record into their game with the Mariners and Felix Hernandez tonight. Hernandez faced the Tigers three times last season going 2-0 with the third game being a no decision in a 5-3 loss. And the game on July 22nd was only a 2-1 win for the right hander in Detroit. The Tigers offense has scored 23 runs in their last four games and is hitting .299 in their three road games. Gerald Laird (5-18), Johnny Damon (8-13) and Miguel Cabrera (6-11) have hit King Felix the hardest.

Jeremy Bonderman was solid for his first start in 2010 giving up just one hit and one run in five innings against the Cleveland Indians. The Tigers have had success while playing in Seattle going 6-4 there over the last three seasons. Mike Sweeney (4-25), Casey Kotchman (2-13), Jack Wilson (0-3) and Ken Griffey Jr. (0-2) have all struggled the most against Bonderman. Seattle's offense is averaging only 2.8 runs and they are hitting just .197 in five games against right-handed pitching this season.

Play TIGERS (+1.5 runline).

Houston is still looking for their first win of the season as they continue their series in St. Louis against the Cardinals. Brett Myers was terrible in his first outing where he gave up 12 hits and four runs in six innings of work to the San Francisco Giants. Myers will be facing a Cardinals team that has hit him well as he has a 5.40 ERA in 11 starts against them, but those starts came with the Phillies who had the offense to score runs for Myers. Houston does not have the same luxury. In Myers lone start against St. Louis last season, he gave up nine hits and five runs. The Cardinals are hitting .353 against Myers with Albert Pujols (9-29), Skip Schumaker (6-13), Matt Holliday (6-10), Ryan Ludwick (5-8) and Jason LaRue (2-6) all doing the best.

Brad Penny made a great debut for the Cardinals last Thursday giving up just six hits and one run in seven innings against Cincinnati. Penny has done some good work against Houston in his career with Pedro Feliz (5-39), Jeff Keppinger (1-5) and Michael Bourn (0-1) struggling the most. The right hander has shown better stuff now that Dave Duncan has been able to work with him, and his progress should continue tonight against a terrible Houston offense. Four of St. Louis

Minnesota is set to open new Target Field on Monday afternoon. Carl Pavano gets his second start of the season after he went seven strong innings in Anaheim giving up six hits and one run in a 4-2 win over the Angels last Wednesday. Last year, Pavano faced the Red Sox in Boston and came away with a 9-2 win after he gave up two runs and six hits in six innings. The right hander will most likely face a Red Sox lineup without Jacoby Ellsbury who got injured on Sunday and possibly also be without J.D. Drew who is dealing with a stiff neck. Pavano has done his best work against Mike Cameron (1-13) and Dustin Pedroia (0-3).

Jon Lester is a notoriously slow starter going 2-3 with a 4.71 ERA in the month of April. He's not a fan of facing the Twins either going 0-1 with a 5.66 ERA in four career appearances. Last year, Lester lost to Minnesota 5-2, giving up all five runs and six hits in six innings of work. The Twins hit lefties real well averaging almost five runs per game against them over the last few seasons. Brendan Harris (8-18), Justin Morneau (4-9), Michael Cuddyer (2-6), Nick Punto (2-6) and Denard Span (2-4) all hit Lester real well.

Play TWINS (+1.5 runline).

Boston was embarrassed at home last night by the Washington Wizards, 106-96. The game wasn

CC Sabathia continued his trend of slow starts as the burly lefthander was rocked by Boston in the season opener to the tune of five runs and six hits in 5.3 innings of work. Sabathia has been bad in April sporting a 4.73 ERA last season and a 7.76 ERA in 2008. He'll face a Rays

Chicago played in an extremely important game last night against Cleveland. The Bulls are fighting for their playoff lives, and once again, tonight is another huge game for them. But playing last night and now playing tonight on a back-to-back set is not an ideal situation for Chicago. The Bulls hung on to beat Cleveland 109-108 in a game that was played at a fast pace and a game that had multiple lead changes throughout. The game took a lot out of the Bulls, and since they won an emotional game over an elite team, that effort will leave them flat for tonight

Baltimore has suffered two one run losses so far in this young season. The Orioles will send Brian Matusz to the mound in search of their first win of the season. A lot is expected from the lefty who could be a surprise pitcher this year. He beat the Rays last year in August doing just enough to win giving up four runs and seven hits in 5.3 innings of work. Among those looking for their first hit against him are Carl Crawford (0-3), Gabe Kapler (0-2), Pat Burrell (0-2), BJ Upton (0-2) and Willy Aybar (0-2).

Jeffrey Niemann hasn

Baltimore suffered a gut-wrenching loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday night as they blew a lead in the 9th inning to the Rays. In game two, the Orioles turn to Jeremy Guthrie who hasn't had the best time in Tropicana Field going 1-3 with a 4.88 ERA in five starts. The Rays hit .297 against the righty with BJ Upton (8-21), Carlos Pena (7-17), Willy Aybar (3-8) and Reid Brignac (2-3) all posting good numbers against Guthrie. Baltimore is also just 4-15 in Tampa Bay over the last three seasons.

Matt Garza is quite the opposite of Guthrie enjoying a lot of success against the Orioles going 6-1 in eight career starts against them with a 2.92 ERA. Garza has held the Orioles to a .221 average as a team against him with Brian Roberts (4-24), Nick Markakis (4-22), Julio Lugo (1-9), Ty Wigginton (1-9), Luke Scott (0-6) and Matt Wieters (0-3) showing the most futility. Garza had a 2.28 ERA in 27.2 innings during the spring, and we expect the Rays to coast to an easy win tonight.

Play RAYS (-1.5 runline).

Oklahoma City is not in a good scheduling spot for this game tonight. The Thunder will be playing their third game in four nights and it

There

Los Angeles opens up the season in Pittsburgh at PNC Park on Monday afternoon. For some reason, Vicente Padilla was named LA's opening day starter. The righty went just 1-3 with a 5.71 ERA during the spring. Padilla gave up 23 hits in 17.1 innings of work, and because of that, he really has no business being favored in this game.

The Pirates have a young team and will not be a pushover at home. Last year, despite a very poor season, they went 40-41 at home averaging 4.4 runs per game and had a .270 batting average.

Zach Duke goes for the Pirates. He faced the Dodgers twice last season giving up three runs in 16 innings of work while going 1-0 in those two starts. Last year, Duke had a 2.43 ERA in April, and he was solid over the spring. The Dodgers are a team who may get inflated prices based on last year which is the case here as Rafael Furcal (2-16), Ronnie Belliard (0-10), Casey Blake (1-8), Manny Ramirez (1-6) have all struggled against Duke.

Play PIRATES (+1.5 runline).

West Virginia doesn

Michigan St has been an extremely fortunate team throughout the NCAA tournament. The Spartans struggled in their opening round win over a terrible New Mexico St team and survived with a 3-point win (70-67). Michigan St

This game doesn

Portland played a much better game last night than expected. The Blazers went all out in order to beat the Knicks which was quite surprising knowing they had a game on deck tonight in Denver. By winning last night, Portland clinched a playoff spot which apparently was their focus after the type of game they played. It appears they just wanted to get in, and their seeding in the playoffs was secondary because tonight

Orlando has been quietly waiting for tonight

North Carolina once again escaped with a fortunate win in this NIT tournament. The Tar Heels trailed by 5 points with just over a minute left to play against Rhode Island on Tuesday night but thanks to 4 straight missed free throws by Rhode Island, the Tar Heels were able to force the game into overtime. And they won by a single point (68-67) to advance to tonight

New York has had their issues this season, but they are actually a pretty talented team. When playing good, the Knicks can beat any team in the league. New York has wins over Phoenix, Atlanta (3x), Dallas, and Denver. They

Virginia Commonwealth won the first game in this series on Monday night by 12 points (68-56). But that 12-point winning margin looks more impressive than it actually was. A 3-point game mid-way through the second-half turned into a 13-point VCU lead after they went on a 10-0 run in just over a minute and a half of basketball. VCU

North Carolina enters tonight with a false sense that they are a good team. The Tar Heels were terrible over the course of the entire season; they went just 16-16 after winning the national championship last year. But the team, and more importantly, bettors think this team has somehow turned the corner because of their last three ballgames. Despite winning their last three to make it here to MSG, all three of those games were coin flips in which North Carolina was fortunate to escape with wins.

In their NIT opener against William & Mary, the Tar Heels were trailing with three minutes left to play before they went on an 11-0 run to end the game. Next up was their miraculous win at Mississippi St in which they needed to go coast-to-coast in under 8 seconds to win by a single bucket. And most recently, Carolina needed a big second-half to survive a defensive struggle against UAB and won 60-55. North Carolina was substantial underdogs in their last two games, and the fact they needed to go on the road and win those games sets them up for failure here, especially since the pointspread has been incorrectly adjusted.

The Tar Heels were not a good road team all year either; they are still only 5-11 when playing away from home which means they were a dismal 3-11 before winning their last two games. On the other hand, Rhode Island has been a terrific road team this season; the Rams come into tonight with an 11-7 record away from home. The Rams also played much better basketball over the course of the season. Seven of their nine losses came to teams that played in the post-season including three losses to Temple alone which is forgivable because of Temple

Dayton was quite impressive in winning their last two games on the road to reach the NIT Final Four at MSG. The Flyers won two tough road games at Cincinnati and at Illinois; the Flyers were 3-point underdogs in both games. But off two high-profile wins against major conference opponents, Dayton is feeling like they

Saint Louis is a difficult to team to play because of the system they run under head coach Rick Majerus. The Billikens run complex offensive sets that just frustrate opponents into half-court games. And Saint Louis is most effective when they are playing a team that loves to run up and down the court at a frenetic pace. Majerus is too smart of a coach to allow his team to get caught-up in a running game tonight, and he

Baylor has had a terrific season; the Bears come into this game at 28-7 with five of their seven losses coming against teams that played and went deep in this tournament. The Bears are a tough match-up for a lot of teams because of their big presence in the middle, and when that faces an opponent

Tennessee is playing some of their best basketball of the season right now, but the Vols are flying under the radar still. After going through a late-season swoon in which they were still adjusting for losing a couple of starters for the season, Tennessee righted the ship at the perfect time when they closed the regular season on a 5-1 run. They carried that momentum over into this tournament, and the Vols have been one of the most impressive teams over the first three rounds.

The Vols made one heck of a turnaround from a season ago. Tennessee was, and still is, known as an offensive team that loves to play full-court basketball. However, that moniker is no longer true and it really hasn

Dallas has hit a bit of a rough patch after their 13-game winning streak was snapped two weeks ago by the Knicks. Since that loss, the Mavericks have lost three of their last five games. But after an extended winning streak gets broken, it

West Virginia doesn

Butler has quietly won their first three tournament games. Usually when this team is winning, they are getting most of the recognition because they are actually the program that started the

Northern Iowa was terribly underseeded in the nine spot, but that fact alone may actually allow the Panthers to advance further in the tournament. Their win over Kansas on Saturday wasn

The Lakers are 2-0 since Andrew Bynum went out of the lineup. Los Angeles hasn

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Cornell is very good, and also an experienced team. They return all five starters from last year

This is the second meeting of the season between these two. And we remember the first meeting well because we had a strong play on Kansas St in that game. That game was played way back in early December at Kansas St and they won easily, 71-56. We liked the Wildcats in that spot because it was a game in which they had circled over the summer after Xavier beat them in the previous meeting. The Kansas St players felt the Musketeers went overboard with their celebration and some words were exchanged after the game. K-St was in a terrific spot and came focused and their 15-point win came as no surprise to us.

Now fast forward to tonight, and we

Butler has quietly won their first two tournament games. Usually when this team is winning, they are getting most of the recognition because they are actually the program that started the

This game is quite intriguing considering it

There

Dayton was on the NCAA bubble, but after a heartbreaking loss to Xavier in the A-10 tournament where a bad foul with 30 seconds left turned the game around, the Flyers were left out and selected for the NIT instead. And off such a disappointing defeat, there was some concern that Dayton may have given up on the season. But that wasn

San Antonio has never been a good team when playing on back-to-back nights. The Spurs are a veteran team that is up there in age, so playing without rest isn

Princeton has had a terrific season; the Tigers come into tonight at 21-8. Princeton was overshadowed in the Ivy League this year by Cornell, and we

California was the Pac-10 preseason favorite. But the Bears had a ton of injuries early on and they really struggled because they weren

There

Milwaukee is in a terrible scheduling spot for this game tonight. The Bucks played in a double overtime game in Sacramento last night and now must play in the thin air and altitude of Denver on a back-to-back set. That situation is always tough, but the way Milwaukee came back to win last night makes it even tougher.

The Bucks were down by 8 points with around 2 minutes left to play in that game. They nailed a three at the buzzer to force overtime, and then they needed a second extra session to escape Sacramento with a 114-108 win. The Bucks also hit a whopping 14 three

BYU was one of the most consistent teams in college basketball all season long. The Cougars didn

There

Northern Iowa was terribly underseeded in the nine spot, and the fact they have to play Kansas in the second round was a raw deal for them. The Panthers were the class of the Missouri Valley Conference; they come into today

This is another game that is all about perception and reality. The perception is that Louisville is a good team just because they are in the Big East. However, that is simply not the case at all. Louisville

Milwaukee was on a torrid pointspread run; they covered ten straight from February 19th through March 6th. But over their last four ballgames, Milwaukee is just 1-2-1 ATS. And considering four of their last five games have all come right down to the wire, the Bucks

Georgia Tech is extremely talented and they should not be an underdog in this game, especially on a neutral floor. Their defense has been outstanding in holding opponents to just 66 points per game on an impressive 38.2% shooting from the field. Tech held their four ACC tournament opponents to just 54, 64, 58, and 65 points which shows they are in very good current form right now. Their defense has played better than Oklahoma St, yet they are an underdog in this game.

Oklahoma St plays in the Big 12, a conference that would rather get up and down the court and out-score their opponents. The ACC plays a similar style, but Georgia Tech is not your typical ACC team. Tech is more of a half-court team that pounds the ball in the paint and plays solid defense on the other end of the court. That combination will be too much for the Cowboys to handle, especially away from the confines of their strong home court.

Despite their 22-10 overall record, Oklahoma St is not really that good of a team. To their credit they do have some solid home wins over some of the better teams in the Big 12, but on the road, in games that were competitively priced games, Oklahoma St showed their true colors. The Cowboys have 10 losses, and 9 of them have come on the road. They were underdog in every one of those nine losses, and they went a dismal 1-8 ATS in those games.

Georgia Tech has two future NBA players on their roster, Derrick Favors and Gani Lawal, and they both play in the paint. Oklahoma St is one of the smallest teams in this tournament, so the Yellow Jackets should absolutely dominate this game inside. Even though Tech

Utah St is a tough match-up for any team; the Aggies run a ton of half-court sets that are almost impossible to prepare for. And unlike in year

Siena was the story of last year

Cornell is very good, and also an experienced team. They return all five starters from last year

Montana has the exact profile we look for when backing a lower-tier conference team in the NCAA tournament. The Grizzlies play at a very slow pace which allows them to hang around in games where they are the less talented team. Montana has held 27 of their 31 opponents this year to less than 70 points, and that fact alone makes them a dangerous underdog in this pointspread range. The Grizzlies also knock their free-throws down; they hit 72.2% from the line. And the other quality they have is a star player who can take over a game offensively. Anthony Johnson is a pure scorer, and he alone got Montana this tournament bid as he poured in 42 of their 66 points scored in the Big Sky conference title game.

That

Washington

Miami suffered a 76-88 loss as a 2-point home favorite versus San Antonio on Tuesday night, but the Heat should bounce back with a solid performance this evening. Miami qualifies in a strong 54-25 ATS revenge situation which plays on teams off a double-digit loss as a favorite.

Miami lost the most recent meeting versus Orlando on February 28th, 80-96, but the Heat actually won the two early meetings this season in November and December both outright as an underdog, including an easy 104-86 home win as a 4-point underdog.

Miami is 6-2 SU in their past eight games overall which includes impressive home wins versus both the Lakers and Hawks. Orlando has played five of their past six games at home, so the Magic might be a bit flat tonight having to now travel and play without rest after their easy 110-84 home win versus San Antonio last night.

Play HEAT (+).

UTEP is a very good team out of Conference-USA. The Miners won 23 games a season ago and went to the finals of the CBI tournament, and they returned four starters from that team this year including outstanding scorer Randy Culpepper. They also added two high-impact transfers in Derrick Caracter (Louisville) and Christian Polk (Arizona St). This year

This is a classic case of perception vs. reality. The perception is that Notre Dame is the better team because of their recent hot run to closeout the regular season. The Irish won six of their last seven games which means they were just 17-10 going into their February 24th game against Pittsburgh. At that point, Notre Dame was playing without their best player in Luke Harangody, and many wrote off the Irish

Milwaukee has been playing some terrific basketball since the All-Star break. And it

The Lakers played in a wild, high-scoring game last night in Golden St. Los Angeles won 124-121, but the pace and the way the game played out will leave the Lakers a bit short tonight on this back-to-back set in Sacramento. LA jumped out to a 39-32 lead after the first quarter, but their lead was wiped away after the Warriors won the second quarter by 13 points (33-20). So the Lakers were down by 6 points at the half despite having a whopping 59 points on the board.

That

There

Denver

New Orleans is playing terrible basketball right now. The Hornets have lost eight of their last ten games, and they haven

Most believe that Georgia Tech is in the NCAA tournament regardless of what happens in this game, but there

New York has had their issues this season, but they are actually a pretty talented team. When playing good, the Knicks can beat any team in the league. New York has wins over Phoenix, Atlanta (3x), and Portland this year so it

San Diego St and UNLV have been in a lot of NCAA tournament discussions this week. Both teams have been on the in and out list, but one of them will earn an automatic bid after tonight. So they

Both teams played well on Friday, but Temple is likely to advance today as they are the better team and matchup well in this game. Temple holds a huge defensive edge as they currently allow just 38% FG and 57 points per game, while Rhode Island permits 47% FG and 71 points per game.

This defensive edge was important in both regular season meetings as Temple went 2-0 SU/ATS against the Rams, winning by a combined +26 points and outshooting Rhode Island 56% to 34% from the field. Temple prefers a slow-down, half-court style and this tempo causes problems for Rhode Island as the Rams are a team that wants to play as fast as possible. The Rams simply cannot play in a half-court game. When held to less than 70 points, Rhode Island is just 3-6 SU and ATS this season with the three wins coming by just 1, 4, and 5 points. This includes their 0-2 SU/ATS mark against Temple and overall Temple held 31 of their 32 opponents to 70 points or less this season.

My power ratings favor Temple by 5 points today, so there is solid line value. The Owls are also in much better current form as Temple is a perfect 8-0 SU in their past eight games, winning by an average margin of +13.1 points per game, while Rhode Island is just 4-5 SU in their past nine games, winning by just +4.1 points per game.

Play TEMPLE (-).

The Cardinal fit a negative 38% ATS letdown situation which plays against teams coming off a straight-up dog win. Stanford has performed well in half-court games this season, including last night

Houston has had a very disappointing season; the Cougars are just 17-15 on the year. Much was expected from this team as head coach Tom Penders was often quoted saying this was his best team since he

Saint Louis is a difficult to team to play because of the system they run under head coach Rick Majerus. The Billikens run complex offensive sets that just frustrate opponents into half-court games. And Saint Louis is most effective when they are playing a team that loves to run up and down the court at a frenetic pace. Majerus is too smart of a coach to allow his team to get caught-up in a running game tonight, and he

Atlanta is in a very good scheduling spot to get a convincing win tonight. The Hawks come into this game off back-to-back road losses at Miami and at New York in their latest. Atlanta

Oklahoma St enters off an easy 81-67 win over in-state rival Oklahoma last night. But do not be fooled by the Cowboys

Marquette played an easy game yesterday afternoon. The Golden Eagles

Cincinnati

There

Providence is on a ten-game losing streak. But look who they have played; Syracuse twice, Marquette, Georgetown, Villanova, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh. That

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