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**Udog** · 02-16-2018, 08:13 AM

Armadillo: Friday's six-pack

Odds to win the National League this season:

9-4— Los Angeles Dodgers

3-1— Washington Nationals

7-2— Chicago Cubs

9-1— St Louis Cardinals

15-1— Mets-Arizona-Milwaukee-Rockies-Giants

50-1— Pittsburgh, Philadelphia

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Armadillo: Friday's List of 13: Random stuff on a winter day

13) Arizona 77, Arizona State 70— Pretty intense rivalry game. An Arizona male cheerleader was tossed by the refs for taunting an ASU player.

Arizona coach Sean Miller sweated thru his suit jacket. Sweating thru your dress shirt is one thing, but if you sweat so much it soaks thru your suitcoat too, thats some serious stress.

Solid win for the Wildcats; ASU is now 7-7 and in 7th place in the Pac-12.

12) USC 72, Oregon 70— Trojans survived 5-12 shooting on foul line and snapped a 3-game skid, scoring on an alley-oop pass for the game-winner with 0:00.6 left.

11) Wichita State 93, Temple 86— Owls led 56-42 at the half, but scored only 30 points in the second half, as their 5-game win streak ended. Temple beat the Shockers in Philly, so Wichita might want to avoid the Owls in the A-14 tournament.

10) Houston 67, Cincinnati 62— Bearcats’ first loss since December 9 to Florida; I’m guessing on Selection Sunday, someone will interview a smiling Kelvin Sampson after his Cougars make the Field of 68— this win should get them in.

9) Pacers-Pelicans NBA game that was postponed last week because of a leaky roof in New Orleans has been rescheduled for March 21.

8) Seattle’s new 1B Ryon Healy has a real injury; he had an operation to have bone spurs taken out of his hand— he’ll be out 4-6 weeks.

7) Orioles signed pitcher Andrew Cashner for two years, $16M; he ain’t going to like the short dimensions at Camden Yards.

6) Wisconsin 57, Purdue 53— Badgers retired Frank Kaminsky’s number 44, and then went out and handed Purdue its third loss in a row. First half of this game was amazingly ugly.

5) Denver 134, Milwaukee 123— Nikola Jokic had a triple-double….in the first half!!!

4) Penn State 79, Ohio State 56— Nittany Lions were up 24 at the half. Impressive.

3) Bengals’ backup QB AJ McCarron won a grievance with the league, will become an unrestricted free agent next month, which means he’ll be really rich fairly soon.

2) Football players must hate baseball; Dodger pitcher Alex Wood “tweaked his ankle during calisthenics” Thursday, so he’ll be out a few days. Someone in the NFL “tweaks his ankle” and it doesn’t exactly make the injury report. Plus all baseball contracts are guaranteed.

I’m 58 years old; there’s a fair-to-midland chance I could get thru calisthenics without tweaking my ankle. As long as calisthenics didn’t include any running ��

1) Minnesota Timberwolves’ starting five players are all in the top 38 in the NBA in minutes played, which is part of why Minnesota is so improved this year (36-25).

**Udog** · 02-16-2018, 08:36 AM

NBA All-Star Weekend odds

3-Point Contest

K. Thompson +210
E. Gordon +450
D. Booker +575
P. George +650
B. Beal +700
K. Lowry +700
W. Ellington +725
T. Harris +1000

Dunk Contest

D. Smith Jr. +170
D. Mitchell +220
L. Nance Jr. +265
V. Oladipo +400

**Udog** · 02-16-2018, 02:23 PM

2018 NBA All-Star Saturday Night betting: Slam Dunk, 3-Point & Skills Contests
Ashton Grewal

NBA All-Star Saturday is a party and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. Who here hasn’t pumped up your Reeboks and showed off your anti-gravity moves on a hoop eight feet off the ground?

Maybe you don’t have all the moves you once did and maybe those shoes don’t pump up the same way for you as they did for Dee Brown. You can still get in the mix by betting on the three skills competitions on Saturday night which sportsbooks have been kind enough to post odds on.

Here’s a look at the players competing in each event and the odds to win along with my best stab at handicapping them.

Taco Bell Skills Challenge

Time: 8:00 PM ET

Participants and their odds:

Lou Williams (+350)
Joel Embiid (+700)
Lauri Markkanen (+750)
Al Horford (+500)
Buddy Hield (+600)
Andre Drummond (+1000)
Jamal Murray (+375)
Spencer Dinwiddie (+500)

This used to be a guard-only event with players showcasing their dribbling, passing and shooting but the format was switched up so it could include the big fellas too. The four guards fill out one side of the bracket and the four bigs battle it out in the other bracket. The winner of each side faces off in the final and of the last two winners have been 7-footers.

It’s not about how fast a player is dribbling through the pylons; it’s about how quickly they can pass the ball into the net and if they can make their first 3-point attempt. Drummond has attempted six 3-pointers this season and has missed all of them. Let’s rule him out. Embiid loves the spotlight but he’s the second-worst shooter in the field. Bye, bye Joe Joe.

If Buddy Hield loses by five seconds in the first round it’ll be the closest game he’s played in since he was at Oklahoma. Spencer Dinwiddie is having a great season for the Nets but he was almost out of the league a year ago and he’s the least accurate shooter from deep between the guards.

That leaves us with Al Horford, Lauri Markkanen, Jamal Murray and the favorite Lou Williams. Markkanen is my pick because the price is nice, his shot is pure and he’s extremely mobile for a 7-footer.

Pick: Markkanen +750

Three-Point Contest

Klay Thompson +210
Kyle Lowry +850
Eric Gordon +375
Paul George +650
Bradley Beal +750
Wayne Ellington +750
Devin Booker +550
Tobias Harris +1100

This used to be an event reserved for off-the-bench specialists like Craig Hodges, Tim Legler and Jason Kapono. But many of the best players in the league are also the best shooters because of the expansion of the 3-point shot.

All-Star players like Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving have taken home the hardware in this competition in five of the last eight years. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been handsome payouts in the past for bettors who correctly predicted the winners. Last year’s champ, Eric Gordon, was listed at +660 and 2016 winner Klay Thompson was +450.

Thompson is the chalk again this year while defending champ Gordon is the third choice. Tobias Harris and Wayne Ellington are the only two players in the field who are competing in the event for the first time.

Gordon and fellow dead-eye shooter Bradley Beal carry the lowest season 3-point shooting percentage at 33.4 and 37. Devin Booker’s 3-point shooting stats are finally starting to catch up to his reputation as a marksman. He’s shooting a career-best 38.3 percent from deep and he performed pretty well when he competed as a rookie in 2016.

Paul George is my pick and not because he’s the hottest hand entering the night. He’s making 47.4 percent of his shots from deep this month on 9.8 attempts per game. He’s a California native and the LA crowd should be pulling for him – especially with the way he’s been flirting with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Pick: George +650

Verizon Slam Dunk

Dennis Smith Jr. +190
Donovan Mitchell +210
Larry Nance Jr. +290
Victor Oladipo +375

This event is tougher to handicap with many favorites winning the competition but last year gave long shot bettors so hope. While the 2017 Slam Dunk Contest didn’t live up to the epic showdown among Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine in 2016, underdog bettors were treated to a healthy payout when Glenn Robinson III (+1300) won.

Books aren’t offering that type of value this year but it is clear the hype is behind Dallas Mavericks rookie Dennis Smith Jr. to put up the most impressive showing. Larry Nance Jr. is the best in-game dunking between the four players in this event but his specialty is dunking on guys. Not sure if that will translate as well in this competition.

Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell has flashed some creativity with his finishes at the rim this season. It’s nothing more than a hunch but I’ll back him.

Pick: Mitchell +210

**Udog** · 02-16-2018, 07:13 PM

NBA's Best ATS Teams Heading Into All-Star Weekend:

1. Celtics 34-23-2
2. 76ers 31-23-1
3. Raptors 32-25
4. Clippers 31-24-1
5. Nets 33-26
6. Pacers 32-26
7. Hawks 31-26-2
8. Bulls 30-26-1

NBA's Worst ATS Teams Heading Into All-Star Weekend:

30. Cavs 18-37-1
29. Thunder 25-34
28. Hornets 22-31-4
27. Grizzlies 24-30-2
26. Warriors 26-31-1
25. Bucks 24-28-5
24. Kings 25-29-3
23. Suns 27-30-2

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Friday's NBA Trends and Indexes - 2/16

Friday's NBA Trends and Indexes - 2/16

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