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**Udog** · 05-25-2017, 08:40 AM

Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack

Odds to win the PGA Tour event at Colonial this weekend:

12-1— Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth

14-1— Sergio Garcia

20-1— Jason Dufner

25-1— Matt Kuchar, Paul Casey

30-1— Bud Cauley, Kevin Kisner

35-1— Adam Hadwin, Tony Finau, Zach Johnson

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

13) Dodgers beat St Louis 2-1 in 13 innings late Tuesday night, but Cardinals tied the game in the 9th inning in an odd way. Clayton Kershaw was going for a complete game shutout but threw a wild pitch with a man on second and Randall Grichuk scored all the way from second with the tying run. Don’t see that more than a couple of times a year.

12) That game Tuesday started the Cardinals out on a 47-game in 48-day stretch that takes them up to the All-Star break. Has to be a makeup game in there somewhere, since teams generally aren’t allowed to play more than 20 consecutive days.

11) They had a 3:12 rain delay in Atlanta Tuesday nite; with non-division opponents only visiting a city once a year, teams don’t want to have to play doubleheaders, so they wait the rain out and finish the game when they can, which in this case was close to 2am.

10) If you’re trying to develop young pitchers, like the Milwaukee Brewers are, is it smart to have your AAA farm team in the high altitude of Colorado Springs?

Arizona, Colorado, Milwaukee, San Diego and the Mets all have their AAA teams in high altitude cities.

9) North Carolina’s 6-10 Tony Bradley scored 7.1 pts/game in 14.6 minutes per game, but he is bolting to the NBA, UNC’s first one/done player since 2007 (Brandan Wright).

8) Most overused word in English language these days: “process”. If ballplayers don’t know what to say during an interview, they “trust the process”- its become a cliche.

7) Former Duke guard Frank Jackson had a stress reaction in his foot last winter at Duke but reportedly played pain-free through the season, but decided to have surgery on the foot now to begin the rehabilitation process- he is expected to be back by late July, but summer league is in early July.

Unless the kid got a promise from an NBA team that they will draft him, what on earth was he thinking, signing with an agent? That prevented him from going back to school, having the operation on Duke’s dime, rehabbing all summer and then playing for the Blue Devils next winter.

6) Purdue’s chances of making the Final Four next spring went down the drain when big man Caleb Swanigan stayed in the NBA Draft. Matt Painter is suspect as a game coach, so they probably wouldn’t have made it anyway, but having Swanigan gave them an advantage.

5) All-time, there have been 18,988 major league baseball players; Houston’s new backup catcher Juan Centeno became the 875th all-time Astro this week.

4) Colorado’s Charlie Blackmon has 44 RBI, most in the major leagues and he bats leadoff— part of that is because Colorado has sacrificed 22 times (most in MLB) this year, giving him lot of guys in scoring position when he bats.

Blackmon has come to bat with a guy on 3rd base 15 times this year (T2 in MLB), also 15 times with a man on second base (most in MLB). Makes it easier to get a lot of RBI that way.

3) Phillies were 12-12 on May 1st; they are 3-17 since then, with all three wins in games started by Jeremy Hellickson- they’ve lost their last 15 games not started by Hellickson.

2) If/when David Ortiz gets in the Hall of Fame and I think he will, then Edgar Martinez has to get in, too, since that would eliminate the anti-DH bias. Playing in Seattle shouldn’t work against him; Ortiz played in the eastern media spotlight, Martinez didn’t.

Martinez had a career on-base percentage of .418, he hit .312 with 309 homers. A great hitter.

1) Eagles’ QB Carson Wentz spent 10 days in LA this spring with QB gurus Adam Dedeaux and Tom House (of baseball fame), to improve his throwing mechanics, I guess. Doug Pederson is the Eagles’ coach, a former NFL QB and apparently he wasn’t all that happy Wentz did that.

**Udog** · 05-25-2017, 08:46 AM

Thursday's Eastern Conference Game 5 Betting Preview: Cavaliers at Celtics

The Cavaliers took a 3-1 series lead with a 112-99 victory in Game 4 as point guard Kyrie Irving (42 points) and small forward LeBron James (34) scored at will.

Cleveland Cavaliers at Boston Celtics (+10, 215.5)

Cavaliers lead series 3-1

The Cleveland Cavaliers are one victory away from joining the Golden State Warriors in a high-profile NBA Finals' rematch. Second-seeded Cleveland looks to sew up its spot when it visits the top-seeded Boston Celtics in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday.

The Cavaliers took a 3-1 lead with a 112-99 victory in Game 4 as point guard Kyrie Irving (42 points) and small forward LeBron James (34) scored at will. Cleveland looked in jeopardy of returning to Boston with the series tied before a torrid second half in which it outscored the Celtics 65-42. The Celtics haven't found the home floor to be much help against the Cavaliers as they lost the first two games by an average of 28.5 points, including a 130-86 setback in Game 2. "We're humble enough to know that we haven't played well at home, and we want to give our home crowd a better outing than we did the past two games," forward Jae Crowder told reporters. "We're right there where we want to be, we're locked in."

TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, TNT

SERIES PRICE:

OFF the board.

LINE HISTORY: The Cavaliers opened as 8.5-point road favorites and by Wednesday night that point spread was bet up to 10. The total hit the betting board at 214.5 and has been bumped up to 215.5.

INJURY REPORT:

Cavaliers - C E. Tavares (Out For Season, hand), PG K. Felder (Out Indefinitely, leg).

Celtics - PF A. Johnson (Probable, shoulder), PG I. Thomas (Out For Season, hip), SF J. Crowder (Probable, thigh), SF J. Brown (Questionable, hip).

ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (62-32 SU, 43-47-4 ATS, 55-38-1 O/U): Irving tweaked an ankle but didn't seem to be the least bit affected as he scored 33 of his points during an impressive 19-minute stretch. "He's a special kid," James said of Irving. "He's a special talent. As the stakes get higher and higher, his game gets higher and higher, but it was nothing surprising for me." James overcame early foul trouble to make 15-of-27 shots after suffering through a porous Game 3 in which he tallied just 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

ABOUT THE CELTICS (62-37 SU, 51-46-2 ATS, 49-46-4 O/U): Guard Marcus Smart was a Game 3 hero with 27 points as he capably stepped up in the wake of Isaiah Thomas' season-ending hip injury. But he was unable to follow up that outing as he had just eight points on 1-of-9 shooting in Game 4 for his third single-digit deficit of the series. Crowder battled through a groin injury in Game 4 and produced 18 points and eight rebounds and is averaging 15.5 points and 7.8 rebounds in the series.

TRENDS:

* Cavaliers are 6-0-1 ATS in their last 7 road games.
* Celtics are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 home games vs. a team with a winning road record.
* Over is 12-4 in Cavaliers last 16 games following a straight up win.
* Over is 8-1-1 in Celtics last 10 home games.
* Road team is 5-0 ATS in the last 5 meetings.

CONSENSUS: 53 percent of users are siding with the road favorite Cleveland Cavaliers and 69 percent are on the Over.

**Udog** · 05-25-2017, 08:51 AM

NBA
Dunkel

Thursday, May 25

Cleveland @ Boston

Game 507-508
May 25, 2017 @ 8:30 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Cleveland
127.934
Boston
125.076
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Cleveland
by 3
225
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Cleveland
by 10 1/2
215 1/2
Dunkel Pick:
Boston
(+10 1/2); Over

NBA
Long Sheet

Thursday, May 25

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CLEVELAND (62 - 32) at BOSTON (62 - 37) - 5/25/2017, 8:30 PM
Top Trends for this game.
BOSTON is 45-30 ATS (+12.0 Units) revenging a loss vs opponent over the last 2 seasons.

Head-to-Head Series History
BOSTON is 9-9 against the spread versus CLEVELAND over the last 3 seasons
CLEVELAND is 14-5 straight up against BOSTON over the last 3 seasons
12 of 19 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons

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NBA
Armadillo's Write-Up

Thursday, May 25

Cleveland lost Game 3 at home, then was down 10 at half in Game 4, but used a 40-23 third quarter to take Game 4 and a 3-1 series lead- they can end this series here. Cavaliers are 11-1 in playoffs (7-2-1 vs spread in last ten games), 6-0 on road (5-0-1 vs spread). Cleveland is 10-3 in its last 13 games with Boston, winning last three games in Beantown by 23-13-44 points. Celtics lost six of last nine games overall; over is 8-3 in their last 11 games- they were 18-40 on arc in Game 3, then 10-31 in Game 4. With Isaiah Thomas out, they need to make ton of 3’s to stay alive here.

Conference finals:
San Antonio-Golden State
GState 113-111, -10, O209.5
GState 136-100, -13, O211
GState 120-108, -9.5, U215.5
GState 129-115, -11, O218.5
Warriors win series, 4-0

Cleveland-Boston
Clev 117-104, -4.5, O219
Clev 130-86, -5, U218.5
Boston 111-108, +16, O215.5
Clev 112-99, -15, U215

NBA

Thursday, May 25

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Trend Report
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8:30 PM
CLEVELAND vs. BOSTON
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Cleveland's last 8 games when playing on the road against Boston
Cleveland is 6-1 SU in its last 7 games when playing on the road against Boston
Boston is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Boston's last 6 games at home

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**Udog** · 05-25-2017, 08:54 AM

WNBA
Long Sheet

Thursday, May 25

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DALLAS (1 - 1) at SAN ANTONIO (0 - 3) - 5/25/2017, 12:00 PM
Top Trends for this game.
DALLAS is 2-9 ATS (-7.9 Units) as a favorite over the last 2 seasons.
DALLAS is 11-21 ATS (-12.1 Units) after allowing 75 points or more over the last 2 seasons.
SAN ANTONIO is 17-5 ATS (+11.5 Units) after allowing 75 points or more over the last 2 seasons.

Head-to-Head Series History
SAN ANTONIO is 3-3 against the spread versus DALLAS over the last 3 seasons
DALLAS is 6-1 straight up against SAN ANTONIO over the last 3 seasons
4 of 7 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons

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

WNBA

Thursday, May 25

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

12:00 PM
DALLAS vs. SAN ANTONIO
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Dallas's last 7 games when playing on the road against San Antonio
Dallas is 4-9 SU in its last 13 games when playing on the road against San Antonio
The total has gone UNDER in 15 of San Antonio's last 20 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of San Antonio's last 6 games

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**Udog** · 05-25-2017, 10:30 AM

WNBA
Dunkel

Thursday, May 25

Dallas @ San Antonio

Game 609-610
May 25, 2017 @ 12:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Dallas
105.037
San Antonio
105.393
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
San Antonio
Even
164
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Dallas
by 3
155 1/2
Dunkel Pick:
San Antonio
(+3); Over

Announcement

Thursday's NBA Trends and Indexes - 5/25

Thursday's NBA Trends and Indexes - 5/25

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