Craig Davis
Monday's Lineup
30 Dime ---- BULLS
10 Dime ---- Braves-Nationals OVER
BULLS --- It might look, on the surface, that this game is going to be one of those “they got their butts kicked in Game 1 so they’ll come out and dominate in Game 2” scenarios. I don’t think so. I like the Bulls as my top play winner today for several reasons.
I knew Boston wouldn’t be the same team without Garnett, but I didn’t realize the difference would be this noticeable. Without Garnett, the Bulls are able to watch Allen and Pierce closer (as evidenced by Allen’s 1-for-10 shooting Saturday), and they don’t worry as much about low post scoring.
John Salmons has been a HUGE addition to the Bulls roster since coming over from Sacramento… but it doesn’t always show up on the scoreboard (for him personally). It really all depends on how the Celtics play it here. Saturday, the Celts decided they wanted to keep Salmons (and the other perimeter shooters) in check, but what that did was allow Derrick Rose to have a career day with his dribble penetration and they simply had no answer for him.
In their previous, regular season, meeting (a 127-121 Chicago win back on March 17th), the Celtics were focused on stopping Rose and his penetration (which they did successfully), but what that did was open up shots for Salmons and Ben Gordon (don’t forget about him). You see, either way you slice it, Boston doesn’t have enough defenders now to keep every Chicago shooter in check and that was eventually their downfall in Game 1 of this series.
And let’s not forget about depth. All I hear is how deep Boston is and how that will push them over the edge in matchups like this one. But I look at Chicago and I see a very deep team. Brad Miller (a former starter), Kirk Hinrich (a former starter), Tim Thomas, etc. I’m not worried one bit if someone happens to get into early foul trouble because I believe in this team’s bench and you should too. They’re deep, trust me.
One other concern I have for the Celtics today is their shooting percentages. Let’s be real, Chicago isn’t known as a defensive monster and for them to hold Boston to 39% shooting from the field is a bit mind-boggling. Now, I’m not saying this has all of a sudden become a bad shooting team, but what became very evident is the fact that Chicago is younger, more athletic, and now they have confidence… something Boston didn’t want to give them in Game 1.
Bottom line: Boston might win this game, but I don’t see either team grabbing more than an eight-point lead at any point in the contest and we’re grabbing a gross amount of points again here as the road team. Take Chicago as your top play of the day.
BRAVES-NATIONALS OVER --- You might be thinking I’m crazy for choosing the “OVER” in a game that Derek Lowe is pitching, but I look at this “launching pad” in Washington as a mecca for OVERS and tonight should be no different.
On one hand you have the Nationals scoring over 5 runs per game. On the other hand, you have the Braves facing a rookie who is greener than the grass they’ll play on tonight. Jordan Zimmerman was the opening day starter for the Syracuse Chiefs, the new Triple-A affiliate for the Nationals, and it didn’t take him long to get called up. Though he wasn’t brilliant in his AAA debut (allowing 2 HR in 5+ innings of work), he was good enough to get the call up as the team’s 5th starter in the rotation.
These two have already met three times this season, and the lowest run total was 8 but the run total for the three-game set was 32… that’s nearly 11 runs per game. And if you’re wondering --- yes, Derek Lowe was a starter in one of those other two games that went OVER the total… a 6-5 Braves win.
Guys, it simply doesn’t matter who is pitching or what team plays Washington, the number rarely stays below 10. All we need is nine tonight and we cash in. The Nats have finished OVER in 8 of 11 games with one push while Atlanta has gone OVER in 6 of 12. The OVER has also cashed in 11 of the last 13 H2H meetings and 19 of the last 28 (two pushes) in Washington home games. Atlanta might go OVER by themselves, telling me this game is as easy as OVER by the 7th inning.
BOUGHT,PAID AND CONFIRMED---------GL GUYS