ODDSSHARK presents WINNERS
Come on in and have a seat brothers. It’s time for us to take a little stock. We’ve been doing well lately. Very well. We’re rolling at 37-13 in our last 50 plays, hit a parlay on Wednesday night, 7-1 last night. That’s great. But it’s in the rearview mirror. You can’t live life there. Our gaze is focused on the horizon in front of us, not the one behind us. We must always be looking ahead. We must always prove ourselves anew each day. We must never get complacent. We must never rest. We must continue to strive to be great. That is how greatness is achieved. It’s a beautiful day outside, it’s time to go out and hunt. Let’s go get some wins, brother. And we always know when we need wins, we use our great friends at Oddsshark for their unbelievable wealth of information. If you want stats, trends, up to the minute odds, injury news, match-ups, and predictions, visit ODDSSHARK.
WINNERS:
Philadelphia Flyers at Pittsburgh Penguins (PIT -215, O/U 6)–The Penguins put on a clinic on Wednesday night, dominating the Flyers 7-0. The Penguins were led by Sidney Crosby and his hat trick and Matt Murray’s shutout. The Penguins offense has played like this all season, they are more than capable of scoring goals in bunches. I fully expect the Flyers to come out with more urgency and offensive tenacity, as they have scored 17 goals in their last four games before game one of this series. I think ultimately, Pittsburgh gets the job done, but there’s more value in the total. With the Flyers chipping in this time, I think the total again goes over. THE PICK: OVER 6
San Antonio Spurs at Golden State Warriors (GSW-8)–I think Golden State gets it done in this series, but I don’t think we’re staring at blowout wins for the Warriors. San Antonio doesn’t make things easy for opponents. They play sound defense, they have excellent ball movement, and Aldridge has been great this season. Also having a quietly nice season is Rudy Gay off the bench. Steph Curry is not back in action yet, and he is the engine that drives this machine. Kevin Durant will get his, but the Spurs will be able to hang. This is too many points to lay to Gregg Popovich. THE PICK: SPURS +8
New Orleans Pelicans at Portland Trail Blazers (POR-5.5)–Portland has had a great season, climbing all the way to the three seed in the Western Conference. Damian Lillard is one of, if not the, most underrated players in the NBA. Portland’s concern to me is their defense. New Orleans is a dreadful matchup for them in my book. Anthony Davis has been outstanding since the Pelicans lost DeMarcus Cousins. Davis has been unstoppable and the Pelicans have been blowing teams out of the water of late. Factor in the improvements from Jrue Holiday, the addition of Mirotic at the deadline and the veteran playoff savvy of Rajon Rondo, and I think the Pelicans may well win outright. THE PICK: PELICANS +5.5
NBA SERIES PICKS:
New Orleans Pelicans (+180)/Portland Trail Blazers (-210)–For all the reasons above, I think the Pelicans win this series. Factor that with plus value, and this might be the best play on the board.
Indiana Pacers (+500)/Cleveland Cavaliers (-650)–You’d have to be outside of your mind to lay -650 on the Cavaliers to win anything this season. They allow 110ppg, which is fourth worst in the entire NBA, and the worst total in the Eastern Conference playoff field. Indiana has already exceeded expectations and should be loose. Oladipo and Collison have been excellent for the Pacers and have both given the Cavs trouble. At the end of the day, this is a value play. The Pacers have an outside shot here, and at +500, it might be worth a few bucks.
Utah Jazz(+115)/Oklahoma City Thunder (-135)–This is one series where I don’t mind laying a little money. I like the Jazz. I love Donovan Mitchell. I think they’re going to bounce back from the loss of Gordon Hayward much quicker than any of us anticipated. Having said that, I don’t see it here. I cannot see Russell Westbrook allowing this team to lose in the first round to Utah when he has Paul George and Carmelo Anthony with him this year. I think the Thunder prove to be too much in this series, I’ll lay the -135.
As always you can find me on twitter @BlackJackFletch for more picks and insight. Have a great weekend everybody!