Wednesday Night NBA

By Divol

Toronto Raptors v Utah Jazz



24th March 23:05 GMT

I can't say that there is too much value here, but I do think there is some. First of all, who needs the win more? Utah are on a tight West, but while Utah are in a fight for position, Raptors see Chicago begin to win again and need to start winning at home to be in the playoffs, not to mention the desire to finish above 8th place, who will meet Cleveland in the first round. Utah owned Toronto for the last 5 years with a 9 – 0 SU record and 8 – 1 ATS and the refs slightly in favour of Utah but this is a true crossroads for the Raptors.

Toronto plays two of West finest at home – Denver and Utah and then plays on the road two direct rivals, Heat and Bobcats. Four losses and they will be out of the playoffs or surely 8th place at best.

Raptors with 3 wins in the last 4 games and covered the last two, so the team is definitely improving. They will be dogs in all four matches, but I believe they can win at least two of them (Utah and Miami I believe).
I will take them as small bet here.



Pick: Toronto to win, 2.38 odds – 1.5 units play - Pinnacle


San Antonio Spurs v Los Angeles Lakers

25th March 01:35 GMT
ESPN (01:30-04:00)

Spurs are so hot. 10 – 3 the last 13 games SU and 11 – 2 ATS (depends how you count the Cleveland game). Three losses were against the best trio in the East, Cleveland (without LeBron though), Orlando and Hawks (only after OT). Can’t say they had many great wins but they did win in Memphis, Miami and Oklahoma. Not too easy places to win at and exactly the kind of games they used to lose before (good, young and hungry teams).

Lakers have recovered after losing three in a row for the first time since the Gasol trade with 6 wins in a row, but I can’t say they have impressed in too many games. An awful game against Toronto, lost focused in the 4th against GSW and Kings and covered only twice in the 6 win streak, once by a point and once by 4 points. But I think that Kobe meant what he said that those games meant nothing for them, since they won’t meet such teams in the playoffs. Little doubt they could have covered at least the games against Wolves and Wizards and I believe they could have covered against Warriors. I saw that game and they cruised to a win and even when the game got close, they showed zero effort on defense, because they knew they had won.

This is the game that should, at least on paper wake them up. Lost there once this season already, great chance this will be their second round rival and with them starting a rough patch of a 5 game road trip and 8 games they will play 6 teams that will be in the playoffs for sure and one that has still got some hope to be there (Houston) + one that wants to finish strong (Hornets) and as I see it, they should pick up a notch. They talked a lot the past month about losing some of the respect and the fear that rivals had for them and that they needed to get their swagger back. This is why they didn’t even look at the games against the scrubs. I expect them to show up at least to the games against Western playoff rivals in 100% focus.



Pick: Lakers to win, 2.14 odds – 3 units play - Pinnacle

Divol