darrell,

While the NBA went 1-2 yesterday, we hit our big 4-star play on the Bucks. We also had a winning day overall as NHL and MLB both won. We're now 17-6 on all plays over the past three days - 74%. Three NBA today as well as three MLB and three NHL (including a rare 5-star).

My NBA Power Rankings are updated weekly and can be found here.

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Good luck , darrell!

Game: Miami at Chicago (1:05 PM Eastern)
Pick: 3 stars on OVER 201

We were on the OVER in game two in this sereis and easily won. We were on the OVER again in game two and missed it by one point as the teams both missed several easy shots at the end of the game and the Bulls could simply run out the last 20 seconds without shooting given their big lead. Shaq's surprisingly horrible game is what really screwed us on that one and there's no way he puts together back-to-back games like that. Despite that game missing the OVER, these teams are scoring in droves. Game three was 199 points, game two was 223 and game one was 217. The two teams met at the end of the regular season and put up 210. In all four games, at least one team scored 106 or more points. This matchup smells like an OVER every time as Chicago's offensive strength (perimiter shooting) is Miami's weakness and Miami's offensive strength (pounding the ball in) is Chicago's weakness. Shaq is gonna come back with a vengeance here as he has heard for two days about how bad he played. It was one of the worst playoff showings of his career and this guy has pride. The Heat scored 90 in that game after averaging 113 points in the first two games. Which do I think is more likely today? 100+. And, Chicago will get theirs as they have in all three games so far. They are hitting 48% from the field. Miami shot 48% in game one and 52% in game two followed up by 42% in game three. Miami bounces back and plays hard and both teams go over 100 as this game goes OVER the total.

Kobe playing team ball? Yes. Lakers beating Phoenix? Yes! Oh my. Phil Jackson seems to finally be earning his big paycheck as he's got this team playing in a way that gives them a very good shot at upsetting the Phoenix Suns. They lead the series 2-1 and they have found, at least for the short term, a way to slow down the Suns. Phoenix is now 2-5 ATS in their last seven games while the Lakers have won five straight and seven out of eight against the number. They've held the high-flying Suns to 93 and 92 points in the last two games. This is amazing considering that Phoenix averaged 108 per game during the regular season. It's a good matchup for LA. The Lakers have been good all season against great 3-point shooting teams. They are now 21-10 ATS vs. teams that make 36%+ of their 3-pt shots. LA is also 19-9 ATS now against poor defensive teams like Phoenix (those that allow 99+ points per game). Los Angeles has something working here and I'm riding them again today.

OK. Enough messing around. Sacramento took game three as predicted here. They needed it bad and had a lot going for them in their first home game after two blowouts. But now, the giant has been awakened. The Spurs won't allow this series to be tied up. That Sacramento win was more about the situation than the strengths of these teams. San Antonio is measurably better and after the game two overtime scare, and loss in game three, I think the Spurs come out and win big. San Antonio is 13-5 ATS this season as a road favorite of 3.5 to 6 points and 19-7 ATS off an upset road loss over the past two seasons. Sacramento is averaging 105.4 points per game allowed over their last five and 114.3 per game to the Spurs thus far. That's not going to cut it tonight against a very motivated, very good team. Spurs to win and cover.