Monday's Trends and Indexes - 2/14 (NBA, NCAAB, NHL, Misc.)

[Udog]

NHL


Monday, February 14

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Trend Report
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8:00 PM
VANCOUVER vs. ST. LOUIS
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Vancouver's last 5 games
Vancouver is 7-1 SU in its last 8 games
St. Louis is 2-6 SU in its last 8 games at home
St. Louis is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games when playing at home against Vancouver

9:00 PM
WASHINGTON vs. PHOENIX
Washington is 2-4-2 SU in its last 8 games ,when playing on the road against Phoenix
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Washington's last 6 games when playing Phoenix
Phoenix is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone OVER in 11 of Phoenix's last 16 games

10:00 PM
CALGARY vs. COLORADO
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Calgary's last 9 games when playing Colorado
Calgary is 5-2 SU in its last 7 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Colorado's last 9 games when playing Calgary
Colorado is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games when playing Calgary


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[Udog]

NBA & NCAAB


Monday, February 14

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Pick 'n' roll: Today's best basketball bets
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NBA

Atlanta Hawks at Detroit Pistons (4.5, 184.5)

The Hawks need to find a way to score points. Atlanta is among the better defensive teams in the league, but is among the worst at scoring the basketball.

The squad is 22nd in the Association in points scored (96.9 ppg) and 17th in 3-point percentage (35.1). And it’s not like the team has played any better against the Pistons. Atlanta averages a mere 87 points per game in two meetings with Detroit this season and has failed to crack 94 points in either game.

Forward Al Horford’s recent spate of injuries hasn’t helped things either. The best big man on the team, Horford is battling back problems that have forced him to miss time because his 6-foot-10, 245-pound frame is built to play power forward, not center.

In Saturday’s two-point loss to Charlotte he returned to the lineup and netted 16 points, but failed to even attempt a free throw as he attempted 15 field goals.

“If Coach (Larry) Drew needs to shake something up to make us better, I’m for it, and I hope everybody on this team is for it and understands it,” Horford said.

On the other bench, the Pistons have been playing better lately. Detroit is 3-2 SU and ATS its past five games and has held five of its past six opponents to 100 or fewer points over that stretch.

Pick: Pistons



NCAA

Kansas Jayhawks at Kansas State Wildcats (4, 147.5)

No Josh Selby? No Thomas Robinson? No problem for the Jayhawks. Kansas didn’t miss a beat without two of its top players on Saturday, demolishing Iowa State by 33.

The decisive win was a chance for the team to show off its balance. Four starters scored in double figures and none played more than 30 minutes.

Kansas should be fine again on Monday even though Robinson won't play and Selby is questionable with a bum ankle.

“I believe you don’t become a team until you go through some stuff,” said Kansas coach Bill Self. ”I think at this point of the season, we’ve been through enough I can say we have kind of become a team. Hopefully we are not close to the team we can become, but I think we are much further along than we were three to four weeks ago.”

Meantime, the Wildcats are slowly coming around. The team is 3-2 SU and 2-3 ATS over its past five games, but it’s best win over that stretch is against a mediocre Baylor team. The Wildcats are better, but not good enough to cover the disparity witnessed in the Jayhawks 24-point beatdown of their rivals late last month.

Pick: Kansas


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[Udog]

NCAAB


Monday, February 14

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Game of the day: West Virginia at Syracuse
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West Virginia Mountaineers at Syracuse Orange (-5, 133)

A big battle in the Big East tips off at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse Monday evening when the Orange (20-6, 7-6) host West Virginia (16-8, 7-5) on ESPN. Let see how they match up.

Slip Sliding Away

An 18-0 start to the season seems like a distant memory today to Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim and his troops.

Syracuse knew it was up against it when they took the floor at Louisville this past Saturday.

The Cardinals paid tribute to its last national championship, honoring the 25th anniversary of its 1986 national championship with several of its prominent players returning, including Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum.

Through it all the Orange couldn't quite erase a 20-point second-half deficit when it fell, 73-69.

Senior forward Rick Jackson, who entered the game averaging 13.1 points and 11.4 rebounds, managed just seven points and seven boards against the Cardinals.

"It's tough when you're down (20) on the road to come all the way back," Boeheim said. "We made a great effort and got our offense going and did some good things on the defensive end, but you can't get that far behind.”

Syracuse enters tonight’s fray just 2-6 SU and ATS in its last eight games.

Not So Melo

Freshman center Fab Melo, who had started in each of the Orange’s games this season, didn’t play in Syracuse’s loss to Louisville on Saturday.

According to Boeheim. Melo, who has been struggling all season, was held out of Saturday’s game after missing practice on Thursday.

Boeheim refused to offer an explanation for Melo’s absence at practice; or if Melo’s absence had been excused. The big man said he was struggling with family issues.

“I had some personal problems with my family,’’ Melo, a native of Brazil, said. “My head wasn’t for practice. So that’s why I didn’t practice.’’

Melo is averaging just 2.0 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. Baye Moussa Keita, a 6-foot-10 freshman, replaced Melo in the starting lineup. Keita had one point and seven rebounds against the Cardinals.

Melo said he would return to practice on Sunday, but his status for tonight’s games against West Virginia remains in doubt.

“He’s done playing,’’ said Boeheim, “for now.’’

Consistently Inconsistent

After averaging 58 points in its previous six games, West Virginia jettisoned past that figure midway through the second half in Saturday’s up-and-down 82-71 victory over DePaul.

It marked the first time in over a month, and only the second time in the last 16 games, that the Mountaineers scored more than 80 points in a game.

After its highest first-half output of the season (47 points), the WVU offense sputtered after halftime and didn't put away DePaul until the final minutes of the contest.

Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins blamed that on some of his players not helping complete plays on the offensive end.

"We don't do a very good job of getting easy baskets," he said. "We're just so undersized.”

Consequently, DePaul converted 62.5 percent of its field goal tries in the second half. It is the third straight game the Mountaineers have allowed an opponent to shoot better than 60 percent in the second half.

“Sixty two and a half percent we gave up in the second half,” said Huggins. “I don’t know what we’re doing. It’s not that they’re tired because we subbed. They didn’t play major minutes, but it’s like I told them in there, I’m not very happy about it.”

A loss to the Demons would have sent West Virginia tumbling to 11th place in the conference. Instead, the Mountaineers improved to sixth, a half game ahead of Syracuse.

West Virginia has now allowed 71 points in back-to-back games after opponents averaged 55 points in the five games before that.

Coaches Conundrum

Since 1990…

• Bob Huggins is 7-17-1 ATS when playing with revenge against an opponent off a loss.

• Jim Boeheim is 10-18-1 ATS as a conference home favorite off back-to-back losses.

In This Series

The Mountaineers are 5-16 SU and 8-13 ATS in head-to-head games versus the Orange since entering the Big East in 1996.

Inside those numbers against Syracuse, WVA is 1-6 SU and ATS when playing off a conference win and 2-15 SU and 4-13 ATS when West Virginia owns a winning record.

West Virginia has lost 11 of its last 12 to Syracuse and has won only once in the Dome in 1996. The Mountaineers’ only victory against the Orange since 2001 came in Morgantown in 2008, which was Huggins’ first season at WVU.

In setting the table for tonight’s game, Huggins said, “I would imagine they are not in a very good mood. I would think old Coach Boeheim had something to say to them on the plane ride back. They’re really, really talented.”

Tape Measure

According to *********** college basketball statistics, here is a breakdown of how each team ranks among 345 others in three pivotal stat categories this season:

Offensive FG Percentage –
Syracuse 46.8 – No. 35
West Virginia 43.9 – No. 146

Defensive FG Percentage –
Syracuse 39.3 – No. 19
West Virginia 40.6 – No. 51

Rebound Margin –
Syracuse +3.3 - No. 65
West Virginia +3.0 - No. 75

Chew On This

How deep is the Big East, you ask?

Syracuse has slipped to 11th in the Big East standings with a 7-6 record and was in the peculiar position of being ranked one spot ahead of its conference position in the national polls (10th) prior to its new standings in the rankings this week.


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[Udog]

NHL


Monday, February 14

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Pucking the trends: This week's hot and cold teams
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Every week, we update you on who's hot, who's not and situational betting spots in the National Hockey League.

HOT TEAM: New Jersey Devils

Now, here's a team that's a tenant in this real-estate district for the first time this season. After all, it's kind of hard to get here when you're the worst team in the league.

New Jersey outlasted San Jose, 2-1, on Friday night in Newark. It was the club's second win in less than 24 hours, its sixth this month, and pushed this too-little, too-late run to 12-1-2 in the last 15 games.

One of reasons for the surge? The re-emergence of Ilya Kovalchuck, who, like his teammates, was AWOL most of the season. But he scored consecutive game-winners on Thursday and Friday, and now has a respectable 19 goals on the season.

New Jersey has some time to rest its weary legs and continue to maintain focus. The Devils don't play until Wednesday night., vs. Carolina, a team they defeated in overtime, 3-2, last Tuesday.

With nothing to lose the rest of the way, monitor the Devils in the unusual role of spoiler. Might be some good value there, moving forward.

COLD TEAM: New York Rangers

The Broadway Blueshirts have, all of a sudden, hit the skids. Home, road, starting goaltender, backup goaltender, it doesn't matter. The Rangers are feeling it these days.

On Friday night, New York lost at Atlanta, 3-2. It was the Rangers' sixth consecutive loss dating back to January, and they -- prior to Sunday -- had netted just one point in February, total.

Coach John Tortorella has tried different line combinations. He's tried to give goaltender Henrik Lundqvist a break. Nothing's working. The Rangers, who woke up Sunday with 62 points, are still in the seventh playoff position in the Eastern Conference. But with so many teams below them playing well -- the Buffalo Sabres among them -- you have to wonder how much longer this can go on before the panic button is pushed.

OVER PLAY: Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks keep rolling along as the West's No. 1 team, and they continue to prove they can beat you several different ways. If you want tight-checking, dump-and-chase, under-type hockey, Vancouver can go that route. If you want a more up-and-down style, a frenetic pace, the Canucks can do that, as well. And they're in the midst of a run that is proving the latter.

Saturday's 4-2 win over Calgary was Vancouver's fifth straight over, and in four of them, No. 1 goaltender Roberto Luongo was in net. If you take it back a little further, you'll see that the Canucks have also gone over in seven of the last nine.

The offensive side of that shouldn't surprise you. The Canucks, with 190 goals, led the league in scoring as play began on Sunday. And as long Luongo lets in, say, two a game for a little bit here, this over train might just continue.

UNDER PLAY: San Jose Sharks

San Jose could have easily made it this week as the "hot team," but we figured we'd jump on this quality under run the Sharks have been on instead. Joe Thornton and Co. hit the East Coast last week, and decided to bring their defense and goaltending with them.

Friday's 2-1 loss at New Jersey was the Sharks' fourth straight under game, all of which were on the road. They won the first four on the trip, including two 2-0 shutouts, and hadn't scored more than four goals since Feb. 2. Quality, quality under territory there, folks.

On Sunday, they were to put that streak on the line vs. Florida. They'll also play at Nashville on Tuesday, before finally heading home. Keep in mind, for these final two road games, that the legs may be feeling a little tired. More unders on the way? Stay tuned.

Surveying the schedule:

** They opened with an impressive 4-1 win over Washington on Saturday, but as the week goes on, beware the dreaded East Coast trip for the Los Angeles Kings. They'll be playing a lot of good teams in a short amount of time, and they'll be far, far from home. Saturday's tilt at Washington began a run of five games in eight days, including two back-to-backs, all on the road. Still struggling to gain and maintain playoff positioning in the Western Conference, this trip may make or break them.

** The Carolina Hurricanes, also a team that needs points in a hurry to secure a playoff spot in the East, have not played well since the All-Star break, which they hosted down in Raleigh, N.C. After a disappointing two-game swing through New Jersey and Philadelphia last week -- a trip that netted one whole point -- Carolina started a monster run on Saturday with a 4-3 overtime loss to Tampa Bay. Starting with the Lightning -- over an eight-day span -- the Hurricanes will play five games, including two back-to-backs. Watch out. The Hurricanes have only one win this month.


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[Udog]

NHL


Monday, February 14

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Ice picks: Today's best NHL bets
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Calgary Flames at Colorado Avalanche (-120, 5.5)

The Avalanche finally scored some goals this weekend – too bad they still can’t keep them out of their own net. Colorado folded late in a 5-3 loss at Nashville on Saturday, but the three goals equal the total it put on the board in its past four games combined.

And the team’s defense has been even worse. Over the past 10 games, Colorado is giving up 3.8 goals per game and has allowed at least three in every game over that span. Not surprising, the Avs are 2-8 during that streak.

"We can't start pointing fingers," said Avs goalie Craig Anderson. "It's everybody collectively. Look at yourself in the mirror and see what you can do better. Everyone's got to bring a little bit more."

But who knows if the oft-injured and under-performing Anderson will even be between the pipes. Dealing with personal issues, he sat out of Friday’s game in Columbus before also missing Saturday’s tilt in Tennessee.

The Flames will be all too happy to travel to Denver to face this struggling Avalanche side. Calgary is 8-1-1 in its past 10 games and is averaging four goals per game over that stretch. Coming off a tough, 4-2 loss to Vancouver, the Flames will be ready.

Pick: Over


Washington Capitals at Phoenix Coyotes (-115, 5)

The Coyotes have their own European star to tout when the Capitals come to town. Radim Vrbata has been an absolute beast the past two weeks for Phoenix and shows no signs of slowing down.

The left winger has 14 goals and 16 assists this season, but his numbers only tell part of the story. During the team’s four-game winning streak, he has notched four goals – two on the power play – and picked up a pair of game-winners in addition to netting the game-winning shootout goal over the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.

Combine Vrbata’s clutch scoring with the outstanding play of netminder Ilya Bryzgalov and the team has been unbeatable. Bryzgalov has started all four games during the team’s winning streak, stopping 98 of 102 shots and picking up a pair of shutouts.

"We need everybody," Phoenix coach Dave Tippett said. "Those are guys, they get recognized...but we need everybody to play a real strong game here right now. These games, they're big-time games, they're men's games here, you got to get all in on these games.

Washington enters the game on a bit of a cold streak offensively, dropping its past two games and getting outscored 6-1 in the process. One of the team’s biggest problems is getting too fancy and simply putting rubber toward the net. In the two defeats, the Capitals averaged a mere 24 shots on cage.

The Caps must do much better to put the puck past Bryzgalov.

Pick: Coyotes


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[Udog]

NBA
Short Sheet


Monday, February 14

SAN ANTONIO at NEW JERSEY, 7:00 PM ET NBA TV
SAN ANTONIO: 17-3 ATS after having won 2 of their last 3 games
NEW JERSEY: 25-40 ATS after a loss by 10+ points

LA LAKERS at CHARLOTTE, 7:00 PM ET
LA LAKERS: 2-13 ATS after 4 straight Unders
CHARLOTTE: 10-2 ATS vs. LA Lakers

ATLANTA at DETROIT, 7:30 PM ET
ATLANTA: 9-18 ATS as a favorite of 3.5 to 9.5 points
DETROIT: 11-2 ATS off home loss

LA CLIPPERS at MILWAUKEE, 8:00 PM ET
LA CLIPPERS: 33-52 ATS off a road loss
MILWAUKEE: 25-10 ATS at home off BB losses

PORTLAND at MINNESOTA, 8:00 PM ET
PORTLAND: 14-4 ATS when playing 2nd road game in 2 days
MINNESOTA: 1-8 ATS after BB non-conference games

DENVER at HOUSTON, 8:30 PM ET
DENVER: 4-14 ATS in road games off a road loss
HOUSTON: 9-1 ATS after scoring 100 points or more 3 straight games

** (TC) Denotes Time Change

[Udog]

NCAAB
Short Sheet


Monday, February 14

W VIRGINIA at SYRACUSE, 7:00 PM ET ESPN
W VIRGINIA: 1-7 ATS off an Over
SYRACUSE: 61-37 ATS when playing only their 3rd game in a week

KANSAS at KANSAS ST, 9:00 PM ET ESPN
KANSAS: 8-1 ATS off a home win by 10+ points
KANSAS ST: 1-9 ATS after allowing 60 points or less

NEVADA at HAWAII, 11:59 PM ET
NEVADA: 55-36 ATS Away after a conference game
HAWAII: 33-55 ATS after having lost 2 of their last 3 games

Added Game

TENNESSEE ST at TENNESSEE TECH, 8:00 PM ET
TENNESSEE ST: 7-19 ATS off a conference loss
TENNESSEE TECH: 15-5 ATS in home games after covering 3 of their last 4 games

** (TC) Denotes Time Change

[Udog]

NHL
Short Sheet


Monday, February 14

VANCOUVER at ST LOUIS, 8:00 PM ET
VANCOUVER: 10-1 SU off a division win
ST LOUIS: 8-19 SU when playing their 3rd game in 5 days

WASHINGTON at PHOENIX, 8:05 PM ET (TC) | VERSUS
WASHINGTON: 4-11 SU after scoring 1 goal or less last game
PHOENIX: 18-9 SU on 3+ game unbeaten streak

CALGARY at COLORADO, 10:00 PM ET
CALGARY: 9-4 SU in road games after allowing 3+ goals BB games
COLORADO: 1-8 SU revenging a road loss

** (TC) Denotes Time Change