COVERS - PICK 'N' ROLL
(Tracking Started On 2/22/2011)
1-0-0 (NBA)
1-0-0 (NCAA HOOPS)
WEDNESDAY 2/23/2011
NBA
Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs (-7)
The Spurs love to feast on…winning teams. San Antonio is a staggering 18-8 SU and 17-8-1 ATS against teams with winning records. However, the team is a mere 0-6 ATS as a favorite of 11 or more points.
"We're getting better at it," San Antonio coach Greg Popovich said. "Miami, Boston and L.A. are all playing better defense on a consistent basis than we are. And if we want to be the last team standing, we've got to continue to … get better."
And against the Thunder – who actually are mere percentage points behind the Lakers for the third seed in the West – San Antonio easily won both meetings this season by playing great defense.
Combined, the Thunder shot a total of just 39 percent from the floor in those games and a wretched 20 percent from beyond the arc. Oklahoma City also snagged 11 fewer total rebounds in those games.
"It was just one of those games that was sloppy," Thunder forward Kevin Durant said of the team’s most recent meeting, a 101-74 beatdown in Texas. "Everything we did -- fumbling passes and not finishing layups; missing opportunities on the defensive end to help the team in transition to get easy baskets."
In the past two road games, the Thunder have failed to crack the century mark in points scored – don’t expect them to buck that trend against the Spurs.
Pick: San Antonio
NCAA
DePaul Blue Demons at St. John’s Red Storm (-15)
We can all agree that DePaul is very, very bad. But you also have to note that the team is playing much, much better.
The Blue Demons are just 7-19 SU this year, but a solid 14-11 ATS this season. Over the team’s past five games it has gone 5-0 ATS as a double-digit dog in each game. But more impressive, the Blue Demons won once outright at Providence over that stretch and suffered just one defeat by more than four points.
DePaul is playing its best hoops of the season thanks to the play of junior guard Jeremiah Kelly and freshman Moses Morgan. Kelly averages just 7.3 points per game, but has dropped a combined 48 the past two, including adding six assists and eight rebounds. Morgan is averaging just 3.8 points and 1.6 rebounds per game this year, but over his past six is putting up 8.8 points and 2.2 boards a night.
“We’re becoming a more dangerous team each and every day,” DePaul coach Oliver Purnell told reporters. “I told the guys, to me it’s clear that if we play better, we can play with anyone in our league. I still don’t think we’ve played our best.”
St. John’s, meantime, has pulled off a boatload of upsets this season, but is just 4-7 ATS as a favorite this season.
Pick: DePaul
http://www.covers.com/articles/articles.aspx?theArt=224207
