Hi all. Sorry for another brief hiatus and for missing this weeks power rankings. Simply put, when you’re working a certain amount of hours per week, it becomes more difficult to keep this updated that I would have ever anticipated. Power rankings will be back next Tuesday, and hopefully another post before that this weekend.
For tonight, I wanted to bring back the wonderful world of gambling and make some picks. I haven’t officially made any picks all season so far, and have not even bet on a basketball game (shame on me) throughout the first couple weeks of the 2014-15 season. Today, I’ll make picks and give a brief write up on them. My source for the lines will be whatever 5dimes.com has at it’s line at the time of writing.
Three picks tonight. Here. We. Go.
Miami Heat @ Atlanta Hawks -5
This just feels like a bad spot for Miami. Wade is out, hurting their already limited back court depth even more. With The Fortress being a tough place to play (the Hawks haven’t lost a home game yet this year), this feels like a game that the Hawks take to double digits in the second half and never relinquish. The front court of the Hawks will be too much of a challenge for the Heat to handle. While Bosh’s defense is terrific, the Heat have struggled in recent games to get rebounds. This very well could turn into a board crashing festival resulting in many points right around the basket for Atlanta.
Cleveland Cavaliers @ Boston Celtics +6
The Cavs have finally started to get some offense together. Tonight they travel to the TD Garden to take on the Celtics. The Celtics projected to be one of the league’s better defensive teams and so far this year, they’ve been anything but that. I guess that’s what happens when Kelly Olynyk logs heavy minutes down low. Still, the Celtics may have just the right ingredients to keep it close with the Cavs. While Olynyk’s rim protection leave’s much to be desired, he gave the Cavs fits last April scoring. Combined with great wing defenders and enough scoring punch to keep it close, expect the Celtics to have a chance to win this game in the fourth quarter. Give me the Celtics and the points.
Philadelphia 76ers @ Houston Rockets – Under 204½
Playing on the tail end of back to back in which they got walloped by the Mavericks, the Sixers will be eager to prove that despite Hinkie’s best effort at putting a terrible team on the court, they can still ball. Unfortunately tonight, they go to another corner of the Texas triangle and have to try to score against the defensively resurgent Houston Rockets. The last time these two teams faced was in Philly just a couple weeks ago. In that game the Sixers kept it closer than many expected, fueled by several runs that included occasional barrages of three point shooting. Playing against one of the league’s best teams in opponent 3pt% makes it tough to imagine that happening again. That game finished at a tally of 197 with the over/under set right at 200. It seems right to expect a similar score tonight. The Rockets should get up over 100 points again, but the Sixers will not score enough points to catapult the game above 200. While the Rockets should win in a laugher, 17 points seems a bit worrisome to lay in any NBA game.
Dropping Dimes 