12/30/2010 - Locks of the Night!!

JL moved forward victoriously last night, as the #Heat came back to edge the #Rockets by 8.  With last night's win, JL improves his #NBA Lock of the Night record to 2-0 and his backroll to $1500!

Tonight's NBA Lock of the Night: $500

Utah (+2) at Portland

I know Utah is coming off a loss to Portland at home, but I believe revenge and history is on their side!

12/29/2010 - Locks of the Night!!

JL (1-0, +$500) started out strong last night with the Knicks -10.5 against the Heat. The Heat locked it up late and secured a 8 point win with clutch shots by Wade and James.  But as the Knicks have showed this season, they have some fight in them.

NBA Straight Up Lock of the night (1-0, +$500):

Heat +4 over the Rockets ($1,000)

Heat are riding a stretch of 14 wins in 15 games. Coming off a hard fought win against the Knicks! But they are just too hot for the rockets to handle. Lebron will lead the Heat in scoring.

NBA Parlay of the Night (0-0, -$100): $100

(1) Heat + 4 over the Rockets (Home)
(2) Celtics +6.5 over the Pistons (Home)
(3) Suns (Home) +6.5 over the 76ers

College Basketball Straight Up Lock of the Night (0-0, -$100): $100

Boston College "Pick Em" over Rhode Island (Home)

Rhode Island has shown some grit at home, but Boston College clearly is the better team.

Round 2 Tonight - Different Game, Different End Result!

7:30 pm -Miami Heat vs. New York Knicks - American Airlines Arena

Round 2 is tonight.  The opponent looks fresher, but so do the Knicks.  The Knicks bring their talents to South Beach tonight, and with their talents they bring a win streak and less fatigued legs.  Much has been made about the Heat’s demolishing of the Knicks at the World’s Most Famous Arena just a short time ago.  Yet, I am here to say that the Knicks will NOT once again fall by more than 20 points.  The Knicks are not coming into this game off an emotionally draining loss (to the Celtics on Paul Pierce’s last second step back dagger), but on a two game win streak.  A win streak that no one can claim was against below par competition.  The Knicks avenged their Saturday loss to the Cavaliers (109-102), with a convincing win on December 22^nd against the highly touted and upcoming Oklahoma City Thunder 112-98.  This was a great win for the Knicks not simply due to the quality of the opponent, but because of the stingy defense that the Knicks presented.  They had not yet held an opponent to less than 100 points scoring and chose an offensively explosive team to do so.  They followed up this quality win, with another convincing walloping of the Chicago Bulls 103-95, which was much less of a contest than the score would suggest.  The Knicks took control at the end of the second quarter and never wavered.  Even when the Bulls made a run early in the 4^th quarter, the Knicks did not fold.  They held the Bulls to 12 points in the fourth quarter, and in doing so, held their second straight opponent under 100 points.

As the Heat are coming off an emotional victory in Los Angeles, the Knicks are in position to make a move.  As Dan D’Antoni stated, the Knicks cannot go into this game thinking they are going to be able to stop Lebron and D Wade.  They need to understand that the ONLY way to beat the Heat is to outscore them, yet, they also must play very efficient team defense.  This is the defense area of the Knicks that I always thought was weak, until the two most recent games.  When watching the games, I can deduce that Wilson Chandler, Amare Stoudemire, Raymond Felton, Landry Fields, and even Danilo Gallinari are quality one on one defenders.  Their weakness is on rotations and the nitty gritty of team defense.  There is rarely an open shot taken by the opposition that is generated from a one on one play.  It is when the opponent has great ball movement and execution that the Knicks defense breaks down.  Over the last two games, the Knicks have shown tremendous improvement on the team defense front and I believe that they will put it together this evening to ensure that this is a competitive game.

The Knicks will storm into South Beach tonight and prove that D Wade referring to them as, “One of the top teams in the league right now”, is correct. 

My Lock of the week:  Knicks +10.5