The Duke's Sports
*Best Bet*
3 Units Boston/Atlanta under 189
This season, Boston has hung their hat on shutting teams down defensively; as a result, the Celtics sprang to the top of the NBA in defense and the standings. And Boston's resourceful solution off an upset loss all year has been defense, as evidenced by their 3-8 O/U mark following a loss as a favorite.
The Celtics were lethargic defensively Saturday; we'll look for more passion and hustle defensively, which should negate more Josh Smith highlight reel dunks. And the Hawks' 55% from 3pt range on Saturday was a severe aberration from its measly 16% in its first 5 games vs Boston this season. Tonight, we'll look for better
perimeter defense from the Celtics. And considering that this series did not top 189 in the first 5 games this season, we'll look for the Celtics, which got their wake up call Saturday, to nut up, play to their potential, and choke out the young Hawks while keeping this one "under" in a lopsided game.
3 Units Toronto/Orlando under 203
This playoff series has taken a point production downturn since that opening game at Orlando in which the Magic bombed the Raptors hitting 61% in the first quarter. We've seen two straight "unders" in this series and should see an "under" here. Orlando has gone "under" in 10 of its last 13 games,
control a 19-23 O/U mark at home, and sport a 14-23 O/U mark after scoring 105+. Toronto, on the other hand, is on a 9-27 O/U run on Mondays, and have gone "under" in 9 of their last 12 games.
2 Units Boston -9
MLB:
2 Units New York Yankees (+102) [Mussina Over Laffey]
Yankees/Indians 7:05: The Yankees' Mike Mussina finally broke out of his funk last Wednesday by showing a glimpse of his old self in a solid 7 inning performance at Chicago. We'll look for him to follow up strong here; after all, the Indians aren't exactly knocking the cover off the ball at home vs righties, yet. And "Moose" sports
a respectable 3.88 ERA vs Cleveland. New York controls a 23-14 mark on Mondays, 11-5 in their last 15 in this 'total' range, and cashed the ticket in 14 of 25 small road dog roles over the last 3 seasons. The Indians, however, are just 12-23 as a small home favorite and 2-5 at home in this 'total' range. We'll look for the Yankees to break out on the Indians' young southpaw - Laffey - who was called up from AAA for scheduling
purposes.