Announcement

**Udog** · 05-10-2017, 05:32 AM

Armadillo: Wednesday's six-pack

Odds for the Players Championship this weekend in Florida:
7-1—Dustin Johnson
10-1—Rory McIlroy
12-1—Jordan Spieth
15-1—Sergio Garcia
20-1—Day-Rahm-Rose-Fowler-Matsuyama
30-1—Scott-Stenson-Thomas-Koepka-Casey

**********

Armadillo: Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week musings……..

13) Reds’ rookie pitcher Amir Garrett is 3-2, 4.25 in his first six major league starts, but was sent back to AAA by the Reds this week, to “manage his innings” according to the Reds. Teams don’t like younger pitchers to throw 20%+ more innings than they did the year before, they say it leads to injuries.

Here is what it really is: Cincinnati wants to manage Garrett’s service time, so they can keep him an extra year before he becomes arbitration-eligible. They’re pretty sure now that Garrett is a keeper, so they’re going to keep him in AAA for a few weeks, again to control his big league service time.

But here’s the thing; the Reds are in first place- you’d think that would matter to them, and they’d try to drum up some enthusiasm in the community, instead of sending a promising young pitcher down to save a few bucks down the road.

12) At one point last year, the Chicago Cubs were 40-16; as I type this, they’re 17-16 this year, so it isn’t inconceivable that the NL Central could be wide open this season.

11) Miami Marlins are having a hard time with Joe West’s umpiring crew this week; Don Mattingly got tossed the last two nights- last nite, he was told to take a hike in the bottom of the 1st inning, after Adam Wainwright had thrown 11 pitches. Christian Yelich got called out on an awful pitch and he got tossed, too. Marlins have injury issues; which makes Yelich getting tossed early even more damaging.

10) Orioles will be without closer Zach Britton (forearm) until the All-Star break, very bad news for them.

9) I wasn’t aware that starting pitchers work out after they come out of games; Kendall Graveman did his workout Monday night after his seven innings, then took a shower and put uniform gear back on to watch the 11th inning in the dugout as the A’s beat the Angels 3-2.

8) Astros 8, Braves 3—Houston scored five runs before they made an out in this game. Bartolo Colon is struggling badly this season- his ERA is 7.22. Tuesday was 15th anniversary of a game in 2002 when AJ Hinch homered off of Colon—Hinch is the Astros’ manager now.

7) Orioles 5, Nationals 4 (12)– This was 10th time since joining Washington that Max Scherzer carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, the most in the major leagues during that time.

Whatever Buck Showalter makes managing the Orioles, it ain’t enough. He is the best manager in baseball. Look at his pitching staff and explain to me how they’re 22-10.

6) Brewers 11, Red Sox 7—Eric Thames hit his 13th homer here; someone who is playing in Korea this year is going to get a major league look next year, based in part on Thames’ success in Milwaukee this season. Whatever he worked on in his three years in Korea, it sure as hell has worked for him.

5) Senators 4, Rangers 2—Couple of Canadian teams are still alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Ottawa advances to play the Pittsburgh-Washington survivor.

4) Spurs 110, Rockets 107 OT—Hard-fought game between two really good teams; Kawhi Leonard got hurt, which is huge going forward. Houston was only 16-48 on the arc.

3) Rangers-Sabres will freeze their butts off outdoors in Queens next winter on New Years’ Day, as the NHL Winter Classic comes to New York City. These events have been popular; I personally can’t think of a worse way to spend a winter afternoon than being outdoors.

2) Jonathan Simmons once paid $150 to try out for a D-League team; now he’s a key contributor for the Spurs. Is this a great country or what?

1) Former President Jimmy Carter came out this week and said he voted for Bernie Sanders for President; yikes. These are certainly strange times we’re living in.

**Udog** · 05-10-2017, 05:55 AM

Wednesday’s NBA Playoffs Conference Semifinals betting preview: Wizards at Celtics

Boston All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas scored 53 points in Game 2's overtime win but found points harder to come by in Washington while averaging 16 points in Games 3 and 4.

Washington Wizards at Boston Celtics (-4.5, 215)

Series tied 2-2

The momentum has clearly shifted in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and the Washington Wizards now look like the team to beat after a pair of convincing home wins evened the series. The fourth-seeded Wizards still need to earn a win on the road to have a chance of taking the series and will try to keep the thrust in their favor when they visit the top-seeded Boston Celtics for Game 5 on Wednesday.

Washington took Games 3 and 4 by a combined 46 points and used a 26-0 run in the third quarter of Sunday's Game 4 to go from trailing to blowing out Boston for the second straight game. "We played inspired basketball for each other," Wizards coach Scott Brooks, who called the run his team's best stretch of the season, told reporters. "Defensively we were in the right position. ... We didn't make silly mistakes that we made early in the game, and it pays off." The Celtics made plenty of silly mistakes and watched Washington convert 20 turnovers in 34 points in Sunday's romp. "If you turn the ball over against these guys, you'd prefer to drop-kick it into the stands so that at least you could set your defense," Boston coach Brad Stevens told reporters. "Their attack in transition killed us."

TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT

LINE HISTORY: The Celtics opened as four-point home favorites for this critical Game 5 and they were bumped up slightly to -4.5 on Tuesday evening. The total hit the betting board at 215 and has yet to move.

INJURY REPORT:

Wizards - No injuries to report.

Celtics - SG A. Bradley (Probable, hip).

ABOUT THE WIZARDS (55-37 SU, 47-44-1 ATS, 57-34-1 O/U): Power forward Markieff Morris overcame an ankle injury and collected 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in Sunday's 121-102 win and is not lacking confidence in his team. "For sure it's going to be hard," Morris told reporters, according to the Washington Post, of the prospect of winning in Boston. "They're still a good team. It's Boston, know what I mean? But we feel like we are the better team, even to start the series. This is what we wanted during the regular season when we was chippy and going at it. We wanted Boston in the playoffs. So you go out there and act like that. I think we did the last couple of games." The Wizards go where point guard John Wall takes them, and the All-Star is averaging 27.8 points, 12.3 assists and 2.8 steals in the series.

ABOUT THE CELTICS (59-33 SU, 46-44-2 ATS, 45-43-4 O/U): Boston All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas scored 53 points in Game 2's overtime win but found points harder to come by in Washington while averaging 16 points in Games 3 and 4. Thomas suggested after Game 4 that he wasn't getting the benefit of foul calls while going without a free-throw attempt in the loss. "The refs were allowing them to hold and grab and do all those things," Thomas told reporters. "I think, especially in the third quarter, I might have hit the ground five or six straight times, and I'm not the one that likes hitting the ground. ... I can't be allowed to be held and grabbed every pin-down, every screen."

TRENDS:

* Wizards are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600.
* Celtics are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 after scoring 100 points or more in their previous game.
* Over is 6-0 in Wizards last 6 games following a straight up win of more than 10 points.
* Over is 5-0-1 in Celtics last 6 home games.
* Home team is 8-0 ATS in the last 8 meetings.

**Udog** · 05-10-2017, 05:58 AM

NBA
Long Sheet

Wednesday, May 10

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON (55 - 37) at BOSTON (59 - 33) - 5/10/2017, 8:00 PM
Top Trends for this game.
WASHINGTON is 5-16 ATS (-12.6 Units) in road games versus good offensive teams - scoring 106+ points/game over the last 3 seasons.
BOSTON is 42-28 ATS (+11.2 Units) revenging a loss vs opponent over the last 2 seasons.
BOSTON is 10-21 ATS (-13.1 Units) when playing with 2 days rest over the last 2 seasons.
BOSTON is 7-15 ATS (-9.5 Units) versus poor defensive teams - allowing 106+ points/game - 2nd half of the season this season.

Head-to-Head Series History
BOSTON is 10-5 against the spread versus WASHINGTON over the last 3 seasons
BOSTON is 9-6 straight up against WASHINGTON over the last 3 seasons
8 of 15 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NBA
Armadillo's Write-Up

Wednesday, May 10

Washington held Thomas to 32 points in Games 3-4 wins, after he torched them for 53 in Game 2. Home side won all four Celtic-Wizard games in this series and last eight meetings overall; Wizards lost their last four games in this arena (0-4 vs spread), by 9-8-12-10 points. Five of last seven series games went over- favorites are 9-2 vs spread in last eleven meetings. Wizards are 1-4 on road in playoffs, with only win in Game 6 clincher in Atlanta- the road losses were by 18-10-12-10 points. Celtics won last three home games, by 11-12-10 points, after losing two at home to Chicago. Over is 4-1 in last five Washington games.

Second round playoff series:
Boston-Washington
Bos 123-111, -4.5, O216
Bos 129-119 O, -5, O218.5
Wash 116-89, -5.5, U218
Wash 121-102, -5, O214.5

Cleveland-Toronto
Clev 116-105, -7, O211
Clev 125-103, -7, O214.5
Clev 115-94, -3, U215
Clev 109-102, -7, O210.5
Cavaliers win series, 4-0

San Antonio-Houston
Hst 126-99, +6, O215.5
SA 121-96, -5.5, O215
SA 103-92, +5.5, U215
Hst 125-104, -5, O213.5
SA 110-107 OT, -5.5, O216

Golden State-Utah
GState 106-94, -13, U206.5
GState 115-104, -13.5, O206
GState 102-91, -7, U209
GState 121-95, -9, O207
Warriors win series 4-0

Favorites 11-5-1 (31-27-2)
Over 11-6 (33-27)

NBA

Wednesday, May 10

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8:00 PM
WASHINGTON vs. BOSTON
Washington is 0-5 ATS in its last 5 games when playing on the road against Boston
Washington is 0-5 SU in its last 5 games when playing on the road against Boston
Boston is 8-4 SU in its last 12 games when playing Washington
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Boston's last 7 games when playing Washington

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Udog** · 05-10-2017, 09:39 AM

NBA
Dunkel

Wednesday, May 10

Washington @ Boston

Game 519-520
May 10, 2017 @ 8:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Washington
124.969
Boston
123.343
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Washington
by 1 1/2
221
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Boston
by 4 1/2
215
Dunkel Pick:
Washington
(+4 1/2); Over

Announcement

Wednesday's NBA Trends and Indexes - 5/10

Wednesday's NBA Trends and Indexes - 5/10

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment