NBA Premium Card 03/08

NBA - 501 Utah Jazz @ 502 Philadelphia 76ers

Play #1

It was tough to lose the Over play last night w/ the Jazz as they were stuck @76 points for about 6 minutes in the fourth quarter. For tonight, I’m going again playing the Over in their contest against PHI.

This is going to be UTA’s 3rd game in 4 nights – b2b spot and the last game of their road trip, so we are dealing w/ a potential “letdown” spot for them. Nevertheless, after being spanked in L3 games, I expect them to be “fired up” for this contest.

The 76ers’ game plan is pretty easy to predict: they will as usual push the pace in every opportunity especially taking in account that they will face a “tired team”.

Now, we have to figure out the key question for tonight, can PHI score efficiently tonight?

Well, we all know that PHI really can’t shoot from the outside… their 24.0% 3pts mark in L10 games is by far the worst mark in the league! They can only score via transition and attacking the rim…

The good news is that the Jazz is a bad team protecting the rim and they are ranked #22 in transition defense. In the L3 games, UTA’s defensive rating = 137.8, 121.2 & 122.4!

Matchup wise…PHI’s best 2 offensive players Michael Carter-Williams and Thaddeus Young will have favorable matchups vs. rookie T. Burke & Marvin Williams.

On the other end, I don’t think that UTA will have any problem in scoring vs. PHI awful defense and therefore, I’m taking the Over in his contest as my Single Dime Play.

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 501/502 Over 206.5 @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes

NBA - 507 Orlando Magic @ 508 San Antonio Spurs

Play #2 & #3

Last Thursday I went with the Spurs for an easy winner, as they really crushed the Heat by 24 points!!! They are now healthy and their offensive flow has been amazing – they had 34, 26, 28, 39 and 30 assists in L5 games!

Against the Heat, not only SAS’s starters completely outplayed the Heat, but also SAS’s 2nd unit of Mills, Ginobili, Belinelli and Splitter ended the game all w/ +/- team points of + double digits points.

With such remarkable offensive momentum right now, how in the hell will the Magic slow down SAS’s offense?! Well, they won’t!

ORL will be without rookie Oladipo for tonight and their bad perimeter defense will be torched by the Spurs. In the last game vs. a tired Rockets team that was playing @b2b spot,  ORL outscored HOU 31-19 in the first quarter just to be crushed 57-82 in the remaining 3 quarters of the game.

Jameer Nelson will return tonight and while this is a good thing for ORL’s offense, Tony Parker is smiling right now and waiting for this contest.

SAS has won their L2 games by 21 and 24 points against better teams than ORL, my fair line for this contest is SAS by 20 points while I’m taking the Over as SAS offense will put another terrific show on the court.

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 508 San Antonio Spurs (-16) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 507/508 Over 203.5 @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes