Will Rogers Handicapping Review & Free Picks Page

After a poor performance against the lowly Blackhawks, Calgary travels to Seattle in a back to back situation.  The Flames are below .500 in January and barely over .500 on the road this year.  The Kraken are 7-3 in their last ten games, and have an extra day's rest after thumping the Canucks on Wednesday.  The Kraken have a very fine offense this year and have the edge over Calgary at five on five play.  Tonight's likely goalie Martin Jones has had some excellent outings lately and is 9-1 in January.

The Flames have had their way with Seattle in past meetings,  but Calgary is not the powerhouse, nor the road warriors of last year.  Look for a little pay-back as Seattle wins against a tired and travelling Flames team.

The Raptors have covered the spread in each of their last three games and just started what will eventually be a seven-game road tip by beating Sacramento 113-95 as a three-point underdog. That was after beating the Knicks at home, 125-116, on Sunday.

Golden State has alternated wins and losses over its last seven contests and is coming off a wild last-second win over Memphis. But as 122-120 winners of that game, the Warriors did not cover as 3.5-point favorites.

We know how bad Golden State has been on the road this year, but at home they are 18-6 and putting up 119.2 points/game. That being said, the O/U line for tonight looks high to me. The market seems to agree.

Despite those numbers mentioned above, the Under is 10-3-1 in the Warriors’ last 14 home games. The total for tonight is higher than the average number of points scored in games here this season.

I also expect Toronto to not shoot as well as they have been recently. The L5 games have seen the Raptors make 49% of their FG attempts. For the season, this is a team shooting only 45% from the floor. Take the Under. 10* 

The Pacers snapped a seven-game losing streak on Tuesday as they rallied back from a 20+ point deficit to defeat the Bulls 116-110 here at home. But then they immediately reverted back to their losing ways, falling the next night in Orlando by a score of 126-120. 

While struggling recently, Indiana has already exceeded its projected win total (23.5) from the preseason. So, in that regard, the season is already a success! But this is a team that can make the playoffs in the depth-shy Eastern Conference (at least the play-in round) so I don’t see them “phoning it in” even after going Over their win total.

Milwaukee is near the top of the East, which is what you’d expect, but they had problems beating a severely undermanned Denver team two nights ago. The Nuggets were without four key players, Nikola Jokic being one of them, and yet still ended up making a game of it. The final score of 107-99.

That was the Bucks’ first game without the injured Bobby Portis. They’ve struggled on the road this year, going just 12-12 with a -3.8 point/game differential. I want no part of laying this many points on the road with the Bucks, even if they’ve beaten the Pacers nine straight times.

Indiana plays hard almost every night, even without leading scorer Haliburton. They are 16-9 SU and 16-8-1 ATS at home. Had it not been for a terrible 1st quarter against Orlando, they likely could have come back and won that game. I’ll take the points here. 10*

I came up short with my Summit League Game of the Month last night, but that’s where we’ll stay for tonight’s lone College Basketball selection as we’ve got the “battle of North Dakota” with North Dakota taking on North Dakota State. 

Just to reiterate what I wrote yesterday, everyone in this league is chasing Oral Roberts, who has yet to drop a conference game. Nobody is further off the pace than North Dakota, who at 1-8 SU in league play finds itself in last place.

But I believe this to be an excellent time to take the points with the Fighting Hawks. While they came up short (again) Monday at Western Illinois, four of their previous five conference losses had been by six points or less.

North Dakota State has dropped back to back games, both here at home, as they were smashed by Oral Roberts, then lost by 2 to UMKC despite shooting 55% from the field.

North Dakota certainly remembers what happened the first time these teams met, which was a horrible 22-point home loss for them. They’ll be out for revenge here and, at the very least, should get the cover. I don’t see NDSU matching its shooting from last Saturday (against UMKC) nor do I see ND shooting as poorly as they did in the first meeting. Take the points here. 10*