Hey there guys,
Yesterday was another one of those up and down days as I went 10-3 (8-5 ats) in the NBA as Atlanta took out the Lakers by 17, which is making things interesting as the Lakers begin to stumble down the stretch, the Raptors actually looked like a decent team as Chris Bosh dropped 34 points and 11 rebounds, Kevin Durant knocked down 15 free throws on his way to 37 points and an upset of the Boston Celtics 109-104, Dallas continued their hot streak as Memphis continues to struggle as Dallas won 106-102 in overtime in Memphis, and George Hill dropped 30 points on the Rockets as the Spurs actually looked like a semi decent team last night. In the NHL, however... things were no so pretty. I went 1-6. Hopefully today will go much better than last night as Tampa Bay upset Sid the Kid and the Penguins behind goalie Mike Smith's 27 save shutout, Chicago looks to be back on track following a 4-0 rout of Minnesota, the Ducks upset the Avalanche in Colorado behind the absolutely outstanding play of Jason Blake (1 goal 4 assists) and Sako Koivu (1 goal 3 assists) and both were also defensive monsters as well, and Calgary made a huge move defeating Phoenix on the same night that Colorado lost moving them within 2 points with 5 games left in the season. Well today there is going to be another Picks Special as the Finals of the NIT are tonight between the Dayton Flyers and the North Carolina Tar Heels. I guess a good question concerning this game would be if the NIT championship would be enough consolidation for as week of a season as it was for the Tar Heels? If most of these guys stay than I think so. Especially for the safety of Head Coach Roy Williams. God knows what the Heel fans will do if they lose tonight I guess we'll see what happens. In the NBA there are only 2 games tonight but they are great games as Orlando heads to Dallas to take on the Mavericks in a game that features match ups between two great shot blocking Centers in Dwight Howard and Brendan Haywood, and two great shooting Power Forwards in Rashad Lewis and Dirk Nowitzki. That should be a great game but maybe not as good as the red hot Portland Trail Blazers, lead by Marcus Camby and Brandon Roy, head to Denver to take on Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. Should be some great action tonight. In the NHL there are also some good games as the Maple Leafs take on the league's best goalie, Ryan Miller, when they host the Sabres tonight, the Capitals, and Alex Ovechkin, look to get back on track as they host the Atlanta Thrashers, who are 2 points, a win, out of tying for that 8th spot in the Eastern conference playoffs, Red Wing G Jimmy Howard looks to keep up his hot streak as Detroit plays host to Columbus tonight, St. Louis tries to fight for their dying playoff lives in Nashville, and Henrik Sedin leads the Canucks into Los Angeles to take on solid goalie Jonathan Quick. Should be interesting. Hope you guys enjoy .
My Picks.....
NIT
Dayton Flyers 24-12 vs. North Carolina Tar Heels 20-16
6:00 pm
ESPN
Line: Day-3
Preview: This looks like an interesting game between an overachieving Dayton Flyers and an underachieving North Carolina Tar Heels. And I think this is going to be a close game but I feel like, just as it was with Dayton and Ole Miss, that you'll never get the idea that North Carolina should be in the game. That Dayton is the better team and North Carolina is just hanging around. The defense of Dayton has been phenomenal so far and I think that will carry over against a fairly solid offensive team. The biggest key for the Flyers though is to stay out of foul trouble. They average just over 19 fouls per game and if there is anything that North Carolina has mastered this season it is somehow getting the calls to go there way. Alot. In the end I imagine that will be what keeps the Tar Heels in the game, but I don't think it will be enough as the Flyers should disrupt the Tar Heels offense and force turnover after turnover on their way to an NIT victory.
Dayton by 2
NBA
MAGIC (-1) by 2 @ mavericks
In the last meeting between these 2 Orlando lead heading into the 4th Quarter before Dallas had a great 4th and the Maverick won by 10. And I know why. Completel lack of production from the Orlando Bench. A little bit of bad coaching by Stan Van Gundy but just lack of production from Bench Players, and in the 4th Orlando got tired and began to wear down. I expect this time to be different mainly because of the recent rise of Marcin Gortat and, more importantly, J. J. Redick. Now that these two are soaring I think the one team that can challenge the Cavaliers in the East is going to go out west and take one from Dirk Nowitzki and Co. I mean Dwight Howard was dominant in the Game with 29 points 16 rebounds and 5 blocks, and I again expect the Magic to be the dominant team in the paint but to see Gortat playing better means that the Magic can now rest Howard, helping keep him out of foul trouble, and give him more quality minutes. Orlando by 2.
trail blazers @ NUGGETS (-5) by 1
The Trail Blazers are on fires. The Nuggets are cold as ice. I had a very hard time with this game as I keep looking at and I see how cold the Nuggets are but how they have beaten the Blazers twice. And Vice Versa with Portland. The reason I like the Nuggets here is that in the previous games the big Key has been the play of Brandon Roy. In the two Nuggets wins Roy shot a combined 9 of 30 from the floor. In the Blazers win? Roy went 16-26. So if the Nuggets can play him like they have in their previous two wins then I think they will bust out of this cold streak. The same can almost be said for the Blazers guard C Nene Hilario. His worst game of the series by far? The Blazers win. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out but I think that the Nuggets pull this one out in the end.
NHL
panthers @ BRUINS
flyers @ ISLANDERS <----- UPSET
This may seem like a dumb pick considering that Philadelphia is 5-0 against the Islanders this season but I just have a hard time seeing them pulling off the season sweep tonight. While I do believe that the Flyers are the better hockey team, the Islanders play pretty well at home and are not as cold as the Flyers. I think this game will be on the low scoring side as I expect both goalies to play better then normal and I expect the Islanders to actually play decent. For once. For this to happen though they need to play a little bit better defense, giving up almost 3 sog/g more. They are physical good at getting takeaways but they need to force less shots. And in turn attack the net more often on offense, against the Islanders this season Flyer goalies have looked outstanding with a .950 save percentage, allowing only 1.4 goals per game. If the Islanders can find some offense, which I think they will on the back of RW Kyle Okposo and avoid being swept.
SABRES @ maple leafs
thrashers @ CAPITALS
blue jackets @ RED WINGS
hurricanes @ SENATORS
This another one of those series that surprises me that a playoff team like the Senators is going to be fighting tonight to even the series this season. Now granted both of their losses came in Carolina where the Hurricanes are a tough team to play but I feel like they should have at least won one of those. One of the interesting things to watch when these two get together is Ottawa's aggressive offense has fared against Carolina's physical defense. And in their two wins the Hurricanes have fared better, giving up 39 shots in their loss in Ottawa earlier this season, but only 33 and then 26 in their two wins in Carolina. If the Senators can get their offense going again they should win this one. I look for Jason Spezza and Peter Regin to have great games each and for the Senators to pull this series even.
blues @ PREDATORS
CANUCKS @ kings
Alright guys I am going to be working on a bunch of things that I plan on posting over the next couple of days so bear with me as this month is going to be hectic, with MLB starting up, SEC Baseball in the heart of it's conference schedule, the NBA and NHL Playoffs start this month, and the NFL Draft near the end of the month. Woof. Anyway if you have any comments, questions, or ideas you can just leave a comment below, text me at (256) 653-2393 or contact us at wherethelandsharksare@gmail.com
Thank you for Reading
Batteman
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