Saturday, March 30, 2013

NBA Premium Play 03/29: Washington Wizards @ Orlando Magic

NBA - 851 Washington Wizards @ 852 Orlando Magic

Projected Line: 200 points
This game is another one that fits in the "lowly teams that won't show any defensive effort" category. Despite being shorthanded, Orlando has been able to score quite well due to their good ball movement, something that isn't common on lowly teams like them. Their 33/10 A/TO ratio on their last game in Charlotte was quite impressive, while at the same time their young players are trying hard to establish themselves in the league. Washington is still considered as an elite defensive team, but I believe they won't show a lot of defensive effort tonight. While facing the Magic right now, a team needs to stop their pick and roll game run by Jameer Nelson and be careful with the cuts from their perimeter players. The problem is that these two areas are exactly the ones where the Wizards have stopped defending lately. John Wall is so focused on offense that he has been lazy on defense and therefore, the Wizards are allowing an incredibly bad 1.04 PPP on pick and roll ball handler plays over their last 10 games and 1.34 PPP on cuts during the same span! This is why I won't be surprised if Orlando manages to have another great offensive game tonight after scoring 108 points against the Bobcats on their last game.

On the other side, Washington will also be very shorthanded. It appears that Martell Webster, Bradley Beal and A.J. Price are out for tonight's game, while Nene Hilario and Trevor Ariza are questionable. However, John Wall with torch the Magic's defense on his own tonight. Wall crushed Memphis's defense by scoring 47 points on a 13-22 FG and 19-24 FT shooting night, while having also 8 assists. The problem for Wall was that he played 45 minutes in that game and with just 1 day off to rest until his team's following game at Oklahoma City, he ended up struggling against the Thunder with 3-18 FG, on a revenge game for Oklahoma City, who had lost at Washington DC earlier on the season. However, Wall should be able to bounce back very well tonight against a Magic defense that has been horrible lately against pick and roll ball handler plays and transitions, the two areas where Wall's game excels. If Kemba Walker was able to torch Orlando on their last game with 13-23 FG, 34 points and 9 assists, John Wall should be able to have at least a similar performance tonight. Therefore, I see this game being a very high scoring contest and so, I'll be taking the Over in here.

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 851/852 Over 196,5 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker

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