Plays #1 &2
Washington had a comeback win last Friday against Brooklyn, where they were down by 9 points with three minutes to go on regulation, just to comeback and win the game on overtime. As expected, Brook Lopez dominated the Wizards' poor interior defense, as Nene Hilario and Marcin Gortat are still lacking some coordination on defense. However, the Nets lost the game as Washington took advantage of Brooklyn's slow footed backcourt to shoot 10-24 3pts and run in transition to score 22 fast break points and 9-16 FG on this kind of plays. Washington has the potential to be a good offensive team and with Nene Hilario and Marcin Gortat down low, their opponents will need to focus on interior defense to stop them, something that will give space to their perimeter to shoot the ball well. John Wall continues having a pass-first mindset (14 assists against Brooklyn) and the team will definitely have some good looks during their games, especially Bradley Beal who is being excellent on jump shots this season! The Wizards are now an uptempo team with great numbers so far: 20.2 fast break points per game! They are confident right now and so, they are playing some quality basketball.
Oklahoma City is coming from a favorable matchup where they took advantage of a poor perimeter defense to pound them. I knew that Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant would have a field day against Detroit's slow footed frontcourt to attack them off the dribble and they did exactly that, with Durant shooting 17-19 FT and Westbrook 9-10 FT! On the other hand, the Thunder struggled on defense and this might happen today as well. Detroit's frontcourt played well on offense with Greg Monroe shooting 8-13 FG, Josh Smith 10-20 FG and Andre Drummond 2-3 FG. Coach Scott Brooks is using the rookie Center Steven Adams a lot, but he is still very "green" on defense and he will get crushed by Nene and Gortat today. Another problem for Oklahoma City's defense has been their transition defense, as shown on their last game where Detroit scored 25 fast break points against them! Since Westbrook came back to the lineup, they are allowing 21.3 fast break points per game! Washington's offense is very strong on these two areas and so, I believe this game will be a relatively close one, where both offenses will show their great form right now. Therefore, I'll be taking both Washington and the Over in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 503/504 Over 203,5 @ -110 / 1.91 on 5Dimes
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 503 Washington Wizards (+9) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
NBA - 507 Minnesota Timberwolves @ 508 Los Angeles Lakers
Plays #3 & 4
It has been almost seven years since Minnesota defeated the Lakers for the last time: 22 losses in a row! I believe this streak will end today. The focus in here will be to check what Minnesota's frontcourt led by Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic will do against the Lakers' interior defense. On their game against Golden State, Minnesota couldn't make good entry passes due to the excellent work of the Warriors' defense. Minnesota ended the game with 5-16 FG on post up plays, something that shows how well Golden State defended in that game. On the Wolves' last game, Minnesota used more variety on their offense and Kevin Love had an excellent game against Dallas, a team that has a similar frontcourt as the Lakers one. I believe the Wolves will have a huge offensive rebounding edge on today's game. Minnesota's defensive rebounding has been subpar on the other end, but the Lakers' offensive system isn't based on crashing the boards and therefore, this will completely favor Minnesota today. With Ricky Rubio at a good level, Minnesota has been really good on transitions this season with 19 fast break points per game.
The Lakers's offense is coming from back to back subpar offensive games, where they couldn't even reach an offensive rating of 100 in both games. They need to make their jump shots to be competitive and that didn't happen. With an elite defender like Ricky Rubio defending Steve Nash, the Lakers' offense that is PG based will also struggle a bit today. Minnesota will definitely come fired up to finally beat the Lakers in here. Their frontcourt edge will be evident and Minnesota's perimeter will also have good looks as the Lakers won't be able to defend Pekovic and Love 1*1, something that will force them to send extra guys to the paint, leaving Minnesota's perimeter shooters wide open. This was exactly what happened on their game against Dallas, where Minnesota took advantage of that very well. I expect a super fast paced in here, with Minnesota having a huge offensive game and with the Lakers also eventually connecting a decent number of treys. Therefore, I expect this game to end with an incredible number of points, but with Minnesota having a comfortable win in here. I'm taking both the Wolves and the Over in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 507/508 Over 207,5 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 507 Minnesota Timberwolves (-3,5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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