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**Udog** · 04-28-2016, 07:59 AM

Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack

-- Warriors 114, Rockets 81-- Not exactly a prideful effort by Houston.

-- Hornets 90, Heat 88-- Charlotte won three games in row after being down 2-0.

-- Blazers 108, Clippers 98-- Hard to win when your floor general breaks his hand.

-- Nashville 2, Anaheim 1-- Was first-ever Game 7 for the Predators.

-- White Sox 4, Blue Jays 0-- Surprising Pale Hose are 16-6, best record in AL.

-- Marlins 2, Dodgers 0-- Mattingly beat his old team the last three nights.

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Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.......

13) NFL Draft is tonight; since 1967, USC (68) has had the most first round draft picks, followed by Miami (58), Ohio State (56), Florida (46).

12) I enjoyed the mock draft on NFL Network this week, despite occasional screaming/yelling whenever Michael Irvin got involved. It was a little bit like a fantasy draft but without the laboring over picks, since mock drafts don't have any accountability, the way real teams or even fantasy teams have.

11) Giants' pitcher Jeff Samardzija was a pretty good WR in college; he scored 27 TDs and averaged 14.5 yards/catch.

10) RIP Ozzie Silna, former owner of the Spirits of St Louis of the old ABA, who reaped a bonanza from the NBA when he agreed to fold the Spirits before the NBA-ABA merger in 1976. One of the greatest business deals of all-time, Silna was paid millions and millions of dollars to do absolutely nothing.

9) Houston Astros are 7-15 and in trouble; its not just that they're losing lot of games, they're playing sloppily and their pitching has regressed.

8) Oakland and Detroit brought up their ace pitching prospects to make starts on Friday. A's will have Sean Manaea starting against Houston, Tigers gave Michael Fullmer the call to start against the Twins in Minnesota.

7) A's signed 36-year old lefty Rich Hill as a starter this year; Hill is 3-0, 1.42 in his first three road starts, but is 0-2, 9.00 in two starts at the normally pitcher-friendly Oakland Coliseum.

6) Detroit Tigers are paying Texas $6M a year for the next five years, part of the deal that sent Prince Fielder packing from the Motor City. As Billy Beane said to David Justice in Moneyball, "They're paying you to play against them."

5) San Diego Padres are 0-5 when James Sheidls starts on the mound; they've scored a total of six runs in his five starts. Padres are also the only team that hasn't scored a first inning run on the road this season (10 games).

4) Eric Byrnes is the only player (Oakland, 2003) who has hit for the cycle at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Pablo Sandoval is the last Giant to hit for the cycle-- would like to see a clip of the triple he hit.

3) Georgia Tech still owes former basketball coach Paul Hewitt $2.7M; he has not been the coach there since 2011. Quite a deal his agent made for him.

2) Columbia graduate transfer Grant Mullins chose Cal over Michigan; young Mullins is a 6-3 guard who shot 44.1% on the arc last year.

1) Cool thing about the NFL Draft is that no one knows what will happen when these college kids become pros this summer. Flash back to 1998, just as many people liked Ryan Leaf as Peyton Manning. How did that turn out?

**Udog** · 04-28-2016, 08:03 AM

NBA

Thursday, April 28

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NBA playoffs betting preview and odds: Hawks at Celtics
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Isaiah Thomas gave the Celtics and their fans quite a scare Tuesday night when he rolled his ankle in Atlanta.

The Atlanta Hawks are only one win away from punching their ticket to the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Game 6 will be held at the TD Garden and the host Boston Celtics will be playing desperate.

Atlanta Hawks at Boston Celtics (+2, 197)

Hawks lead series 3-2

The Atlanta Hawks found a formula to stop Isaiah Thomas in Game 5, and it brought them to the brink of a series win. The Hawks will try to stop a hobbled Thomas again and close out the series when they visit the Boston Celtics for Game 6 on Thursday.

The Celtics were already down 31 points in the fourth quarter of Game 5 in Atlanta when Thomas went up for a layup and rolled his ankle on the way down, effectively ending his night at seven points on 3-of-12 shooting in the 110-83 setback. Thomas, who vows to play in Game 6, averaged 35 points in home wins in Games 3 and 4 and was the clear focus of the Hawks defense in Game 5, with two players trapping every time he had the ball. “If we’re able to contain him, it gives us a better chance,” Atlanta center Al Horford told reporters. “We just wanted to be aggressive. (Thomas’) a guy that’s very capable.” The Hawks trailed by 10 points midway through the second quarter before exploding for 70 points over the next 18 minutes of the game and coasting through the fourth quarter.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT, FSN Southeast (Atlanta), CSN New England (Boston)

LINE HISTORY: The Hawks opened as 1.5-point road favorites and on Wednesday morning the books bumped the line slightly to ATL -2. The total opened at 197 and has yet to budge off the initial number. Check out the complete line history here.

INJURY REPORT:

Hawks - C T. Splitter (Out For Season, hip).

Celtics - PG I. Thomas (Probable Thursday, ankle), PG A. Bradley (Out Indefinitely, hamstring).

ABOUT THE HAWKS (51-36, 44-42-1 ATS, 39-48 O/U): Atlanta handed out a combined 21 assists in the second and third quarters on Tuesday and buried 11 of 14 3-pointers in the two frames while surging into the lead. “(The shooting was) definitely contagious,” Hawks swingman Kent Bazemore told reporters. “What changed is we said, ‘just let it fly.’ (We) loosened up a little bit there.” Bazemore knocked down four 3-pointers to bounce back from a 2-of-10 effort in Game 4 and Atlanta got contributions from reserve forwards Kris Humphries (eight points in nine minutes in his first appearance of the series) and Mike Scott (17 points on 7-of-9 shooting).

ABOUT THE CELTICS (50-37, 45-41-1 ATS, 40-47 O/U): Boston shot 37.7 percent from the floor in Game 5, including 7-of-29 from 3-point range, and had no answer for the defensive pressure focused on Thomas. "They put two or three guys on me every time I touched the ball," Thomas said. "Their game plan was to let the other guys beat us. It should be a sign of disrespect to my teammates for (the Hawks) to put two on the ball every time I have it. Other guys have to step up and make plays, that's what it comes down to." Thomas expressed confidence that his teammates will be able to step up with the series on the line, and guard Marcus Smart will get one more chance in front of the home crowd after posting 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists in Game 4.

TRENDS:

* Hawks are 0-6 ATS in their last 6 road games vs. a team with a winning home record.
* Celtics are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 home games.
* Under is 5-0 in Hawks last 5 after scoring 100 points or more in their previous game.
* Under is 12-3 in Celtics last 15 games playing on 1 days rest.
* Home team is 4-0 ATS in the last 4 meetings.

CONSENSUS: The early consensus numbers are favoring the underdog Celtics (64 percent) and the over (59 percent).

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**Udog** · 04-28-2016, 08:10 AM

NBA
Long Sheet

Thursday, April 28

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ATLANTA (51 - 36) at BOSTON (50 - 37) - 4/28/2016, 8:05 PM
Top Trends for this game.
ATLANTA is 16-35 ATS (-22.5 Units) in road games in all playoff games since 1996.
ATLANTA is 10-24 ATS (-16.4 Units) in road games in the first round of the playoffs since 1996.
BOSTON is 93-77 ATS (+8.3 Units) in all games over the last 2 seasons.
BOSTON is 23-14 ATS (+7.6 Units) revenging a loss vs opponent this season.
BOSTON is 15-5 ATS (+9.5 Units) in home games when playing against a team with a winning record - 2nd half of the season over the last 2 seasons.
BOSTON is 57-42 ATS (+10.8 Units) versus good offensive teams - scoring 99+ points/game over the last 2 seasons.
ATLANTA is 99-82 ATS (+8.8 Units) in all games over the last 2 seasons.
ATLANTA is 74-60 ATS (+8.0 Units) as a favorite over the last 2 seasons.
ATLANTA is 38-24 ATS (+11.6 Units) after a win by 10 points or more over the last 2 seasons.
ATLANTA is 56-37 ATS (+15.3 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record over the last 2 seasons.
ATLANTA is 36-25 ATS (+8.5 Units) versus poor defensive teams - allowing 99+ points/game this season.
BOSTON is 96-130 ATS (-47.0 Units) in home games after allowing 105 points or more since 1996.

Head-to-Head Series History
BOSTON is 8-8 against the spread versus ATLANTA over the last 3 seasons
ATLANTA is 10-6 straight up against BOSTON over the last 3 seasons
10 of 16 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons

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NBA
Short Sheet

Thursday, April 28

Atlanta at Boston, 8:05 ET
Atlanta: 33-19 ATS off a home win by 10 points or more
Boston: 5-15 ATS in home games after playing 2 games as an underdog

NBA
Armadillo's Write-Up

Thursday, April 28

Boston-Atlanta (A 3-2)
Home side won all five series games; Hawks lost by 8-9 in the two played here. Boston shot 46%/42.6% in two series wins, shot less than 38% in three losses. Celtics lost six of last eight games with Atlanta, with four of last five staying under the total. Eight of last 11Atlanta games stayed under the total, as did five of the last six Celtic games. Hawks were 12-43 on arc in Game 4, 14-35 in Game 5- they still need to attack basket more. Atlanta had way better balance last game, with six players scoring between 8-17 points.

Playoff tally: Favorites vs spread: 23-15, Over: 12-26

NBA

Thursday, April 28

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Trend Report
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8:00 PM
ATLANTA vs. BOSTON
Atlanta is 2-5 ATS in its last 7 games
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Atlanta's last 5 games when playing Boston
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Boston's last 5 games when playing Atlanta
Boston is 2-6 SU in its last 8 games when playing Atlanta

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**Udog** · 04-28-2016, 09:24 AM

NBA
Dunkel

Thursday, April 28

Atlanta @ Boston

Game 701-702
April 28, 2016 @ 8:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Atlanta
123.738
Boston
118.618
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Atlanta
by 5
192
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Atlanta
by 1 1/2
197
Dunkel Pick:
Atlanta
(-1 1/2); Under

Announcement

Thursday's NBA Trends and Indexes - 4/28

Thursday's NBA Trends and Indexes - 4/28

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