Tax Day Tea Party: Gamblers Tee Off on Bookmakers

The top sports handicappers are celebrating the Tea Party with a tee party. No, not counting their Masters winning, but teeing off on the sportsbooks. Today in the Daily Sports Roundup: The NHL's postseason gets underway in four cities, and the NBA's regular season comes to a close with a 14-game slate.

Tipping off on the hardwood  . . .

Final playoff-position jockeying will take place in the NBA on Wednesday night as 28 of the league's 30 teams hit the hardwood to close out the regular season. The defending-champion Celtics, though, won't be too concerned with their result against the conference-worst Wizards on Wednesday, as they're locked into the No. 2 slot in the East. The Celtics beat the Wiz 108-83 when they met January 2.

The East's top seed, the Cavaliers, will host the Sixers on Wednesday night, while No. 3 Orlando gets a visit from Charlotte, No. 4 Atlanta is in Memphis, and No. 5 Miami hosts Detroit. The Pistons, Sixers, and Bulls (who are at home against Toronto on Wednesday night) will be deciding their seeds for the playoffs.

The West's top gun, the Lakers, concluded their regular season on Tuesday against another playoff-bound club, the Jazz. After Los Angeles, though, there is a logjam in the West standings, with New Orleans at San Antonio, Houston at Dallas, and Denver at Portland to sort things out. Rounding out the NBA slate for Wednesday: New Jersey at New York, Sacramento at Minnesota, Milwaukee at Indiana, Oklahoma City at the Clippers, and then finally Golden State at Phoenix.

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Meeting up on the diamond . . .

The struggling Yankees will give the ball to veteran Andy Pettitte on Wednesday night as they try to turn around their early-season fortunes. Pettitte sparkled in his season debut against the Royals last week, allowing just one earned run on three hits over seven innings in a victory. The lefthander will take on the Rays and righthander Andy Sonnanstine, who is 0-1 with a 9.64 ERA through one start.

Also on the American League schedule for Wednesday: the White Sox at Detroit, Cleveland at Kansas City, Boston at Oakland, Baltimore at Texas, Toronto at Minnesota, and the Angels at Seattle. Los Angeles probable starter Jered Weaver threw 6 2-3 scoreless innings in a win over the Red Sox last Friday night.

Over in the National League on Wednesday it'll be Colorado at the Cubs, St. Louis at Arizona, Houston at Pittsburgh, San Diego at the Mets, Florida at Atlanta, Cincinnati at Milwaukee, San Francisco at the Dodgers, and Philadelphia at Washington. The Nationals sit at 0-7 on the season heading into their game against the Phillies, with Shairon Martis (0-0, 9.00 ERA) slated to take the mound.

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Taking a trip around the rink . . .

Eight teams begin their quest for the Stanley Cup on Wednesday night as both the Eastern Conference and Western Conference playoffs get underway. The East matchups have Philadelphia at Pittsburgh, the Rangers at Washington, and Carolina at New Jersey, while the lone West contest sees St. Louis at Vancouver.

The home teams for all four of those games are also favored to win their best-of-seven first-round series. The biggest chalk of the bunch are the Canucks, who opened at -255 to take care of the upstart Blues over the next two weeks; those teams split their four games this season. The Caps are pegged as big -250  favorites in the first round; they beat the Rangers in three of four games this year.

Meanwhile, the Penguins opened at -160 to get past the state-rival Flyers in their playoffs series; Sidney Crosby and company had success against Philadelphia this season, winning four of six meetings between the teams. Finally, the Devils are small -130 favorites to dispatch the Hurricanes; Carolina, however, had New Jersey's number this year, winning three of the four meetings between the clubs.