Thursday Trends, News and Notes

Thursday, April 27, 2006  

Your four-day pass starts out with a Wise Guy day winner (and an additional surprise!).  We then have two NBA including a Wise Guy. If it were not for NHL OT or MLB extra innings, we would never lose.  We win yet again in MLB and the NBA Wednesday. It’s now a quiet 5-0 NBA run while our baseball dog domination goes back to the 80s and our Cadillac Club days.

Far from classic, yet still a great illustration how we became the premier MLB handicapper because of our mastery of risk/return, we split eight baseball games but win thanks to dogs barking led by Dandy Dog on Arizona.

Make big money day and night by getting at least the four day pass! The ENTIRE card  is just $17 at www.godspicks.com.  Alternate forms of payment are available. Godspicks is proud to be part of the Handicapper’s Sampler rundown of which sports services are hot and who has the big play at JoeDuffy.net

NBA

·        New Jersey has gone under 17-3 road after failing to cover 2-of-3

·        Miami is 4-16 this year to teams that attempt 18 or more three points shots per game

·        LA Clippers are 8-21 this year after consecutive games as a favorite

 

MLB

·        Colorado is 2-18 on the road the last two years versus pitchers who walk 1.75 or fewer per game -14.6 units

·        Philadelphia is 0-4 with Lieber -5.1. His ERA is 7.99

·        Washington-St. Louis has gone over 9-2 last three years

·        Minnesota over 11-of-14

·        Toronto over 8-0 at night this year

 

NBA

Nets-Pacers

Newark Star Ledger

The Pacers’ injury toll mounted when Stephen Jackson was added to the list of banged-up players, a list that already included Peja Stojakovic and Jamaal Tinsley. Jackson jammed his right pinkie while fouling out of Game 2 on Tuesday, and had X-rays taken yesterday. The X-rays were negative and Jackson will almost certainly play tonight, but he could not shoot yesterday in practice and there is some worry about his level of effectiveness. “He was really sore and couldn’t shoot the ball,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’ll get treatment and we’ll see where he is. I know he’s going to play, because he plays. But we’re concerned about it because it is his shooting hand.” Carlisle also said Tinsley, who returned form a sore right Achilles’ tendon to play in Game 2, is very sore and is questionable for tonight. Meanwhile Stojakovic, whose swollen right knee kept him in street clothes for Game 2, did not practice and remains uncertain for tonight, though he claimed to “believe,” he’ll play.

Heat-Bulls

Chicago.com

Not too long ago, the Chicago Bulls owned the NBA’s stingiest defense. And then, the playoffs began. A Bulls team that led the league in field-goal percentage defense during the regular season has allowed the Miami Heat to shoot 50.3 percent, and, no shocker, trails 2-0 as this first-round playoff series shifts to Chicago for Games 3 and 4 Thursday and Sunday. Center Alonzo Mourning is questionable with a torn calf muscle—an injury he sustained in an 82-73 loss at Detroit on March 22. Skiles expects Bulls F Malik Allen, bothered by back spasms, to be available for Game 3.

Clippers-Nuggets

Sports Illustrated/CNN

The Denver Nuggets know they can win without Kenyon Martin.They’ve gone 29-9 in games he’s missed due to injury since signing a seven-year, $93 million contract two years ago, including 19-6 this season, when his surgically repaired left knee limited him to a career-low 56 games and drove to Nuggets to hold him out of the regular season finale, as well.