Zack's Picks (1 Live)
One of the toughest things to do is play early conference games in December, and then have a layoff. That is a factor tonight for Cal Poly that played two Big West conference games, and go into tonight on a ten day layoff. Montana State has just two wins against division one schools, and just played three days ago against Oregon State. Despite a poor road record of 1-6, look for their road heavy schedule to pay dividends tonight. Lay the small number or moneyline Montana State.
San Antonio is coming off ending the Oklahoma City Thunder’s sixteen game winning streak in Saturday’s semi-final win. When a star player returns the impact is typically felt in the second game. Expect Wemby to have a minutes increase, and for the Knicks star guard to be ready to attack the Spurs defense. Additionally, the Spurs have two players Mike Brown coached on his last time in Sacramento in D’Aaron Fox and Harrison Barnes. Expect Brown to have the right sets for Brunson to attack in half court.
If it was the NBA Cup championship or just a standard regular season game, to me tonight is the perfect time to fade the Spurs. They blew out a Lakers team as a seven point underdog, and ended the Thunder’s sixteen game win streak. Postgame after defeating the Magic, we heard Karl Anthony Towns talk about the Knicks having had their best practices of the season. It’s carried over onto the court where the Knicks have won eight out of their last nine games. The East wins the NBA cup for a second straight season.
UT Rio Valley Grande is a team that lost the majority of their starting five from last season. It shows on the floor as they are one of the lowest scoring teams in division one, ranking 296th. They scored just fifty points in their last game against UT Arlington, and have lost four out of their last five games. Expect a close game as Lamar’s only Southland conference game they scored forty nine points against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Take the points here with UT Rio.
With the Denver Nuggets an oddity to their season has been how they are better on the road. Their record in away games is 12-2, while at home they have just a 6-4 record. Extra rest is not necessarily a recipe for success when it comes to the NBA. With both teams off since Thursday, that could be another wrinkle to cause the Nuggets to have issues at home. Additionally, the Rockets are seeking revenge from losing by just three points to Denver on November 21st. Take the Rockets here.
The Seattle Seahawks continue to win in blowout fashion. A concern in the prop market are weak opponents taking away the need to move the football in second halves. Sam Darnold’s last three home starts he is averaging just 173 yards passing. Take the under on Barner’s receiving yards.
A wide receiver option that has gone completely MIA is Ricky Pearsall. There are a combination of reasons for that occurring, as in each of Pearsall’s last three games he has had a whopping twenty yards total receiving. Part of that was due to Pearsall returning to action from injury, but also the offense adjusting going back to Brock Purdy at quarterback. With Christian McCaffrey dinged up, look for others to step up in the offense today. Take Pearsall’s over.
The New Orleans Saints under Tyler Shough have two of their three wins this season in divisional games. One of the wins came at Carolina when Shough had a couple of huge broken play connections with tight end Juwan Johnson. The 92 yards was a season high for Johnson, but expect the Panthers to be more prepared off a bye week for Shough’s ability to extend play. Grab the under on Johnson.
The Denver Broncos have a ten game winning streak, and even better a twelve game home winning streak dating back to last season. Still, weekly it appears they are surviving to get victories and will face a Packers team that’s offense is starting to hit its stride. Under Matt LaFleur since 2019, the Packers are 21-4 in the month of December. Take the Packers.
Kansas City certainly is not a playoff worthy team with their performance this season. With their playoff hopes pretty much dashed, I think we see a pride element on Sunday against a divisional opponent in the LA Chargers. LA is coming off an overtime win against Philadelphia, and the offense is hindered with Justin Herbert playing hurt. Take the Chiefs here.
The NBA Cup semi-finals are here in Las Vegas. Both games have big favorites for a neutral site NBA game. New York has won eight out of their last nine games, with one of those a six point win over the Orlando Magic. In their latest win Jalen Brunson corrected his issues beyond the three point line by going six of nine against the Raptors. Lay the number here with the Knicks.
For the Atlanta Hawks no player has more attention than Jalen Johnson. Johnson is averaging 30 points and 14 rebounds over his last five games. This included a 29 and 13 performance against the Pistons on December 1st. Look for Detroit to center their game plan on limiting Johnson, and for Okongwu to take advantage. Okongwu has averaged 21 points in the two matchups against the Pistons, this included scoring 20 of their 98 points in the December matchup. Take Okongwu over.
Being undefeated at this stage of the season in college basketball, and barely slipping into the top twenty five is a red flag in my opinion. That is the case for the Nebraska Cornhuskers who have a 9 and 0 record, and are coming off a blowout win over Creighton. Conference play can open the door on team issues. We saw this a year ago when Nebraska started 6-1, and were blown out by the Spartans in their first Big Ten game. The Badgers also limited them to 55 points in last year’s matchup. Grab the points with Wisconsin.
On the season Delaware has lost just one game by today’s point spread against George Washington, and that was exactly 23 points. They even went into BYU and lost by just 17 points. Yet, as I mentioned on HQ this team is depleted with pre-season injuries, that has caused them to have to overplay their starters. Christian Bliss leads the country in minutes per game and Macon Emory is ninth. Expect the impact to be to much of a burden tonight off an overtime game on Saturday, and road travel. Lay the large number.