Tim Michaels Handicapper Reviews & Picks

T.M. Selection: Trail Blazers/Magic OVER.

I am on the over in the Portland Trail Blazers vs Orlando Magic game on Monday. Portland just lost their best player Damian Lillard but they have still looked good in their games without him lately winning 3 games in their previous 4. They have scored 100+ points in 10 games in a row and I expect them to do the same in this game. The Magic don't really play any defense in their games either so I expect the Trail Blazers to keep up their run and put up a lot of points on the Magic here. The Blazers don't play great defense themselves either though. They have given up 105+ points in 3 games in a row and have given up 100+ points in every single game over their previous 20 games except for 1. The Blazers are used to high scoring games though, they have had both teams put up 100+ points in 9/10 games of their L10. The Magic have not been a high scoring team really but lately they have been putting up a lot of points in their games. They have put up 100+ points in 3 of their previous 4 games. They have also given up 100+ points in 4 games in a row and their defense has been terrible all year. The Magic are still missing key players here and I think that is going to be a factor to their defense. The Magic don't play defense well with their starters in so I expect them to be even worse on defense without them in this game. The Trail Blazers are also missing key players so I think they aren't going to play good defense either. I think both of these teams aren't going to defend well enough and I think both are just going to push each other to put up more points as the game goes on. I like the over in this game.

T.M. Prediction: 117-112 Trail Blazers.

T.M. Selection: Indiana.

I like Indiana to cover the spread against Nebraska in this game on Monday. Indiana just lost their most recent game and that ended a run of 2 wins they had strung together. They lost on the road to a good Iowa team by 9 points and I think they are going to bounce back big in this game. Indiana is still looking for their 1st road win of the year and I expect them to get it here in a blowout fashion. Before their loss, Indiana had beaten Minnesota by 13 points and Ohio State by 16 points. Now they have Nebraska on their schedule and they are the worst team in the conference this year. Indiana has looked good in conference play lately and I expect them to continue that with a slaughter of Nebraska in this game. Indiana is still looking for their 1st road win but Nebraska is still looking for their 1st win in conference play and they have looked terrible this year in most of their games. They have lost 5 games in a row, all of them to conference teams, and their previous 4 losses in a row were all by 10+ points. They just got smacked by Purdue in their most recent game by almost 30 points and their most recent road game was a loss to Rutgers who is not even that great this year, and again they lost by almost 30 points. Indiana has actually looked good lately and they have some good wins to build off going forward. Nebraska is just an absolute mess and they have been all year. I like Indiana to bounce back in this game and get rolling again by covering the spread here.

T.M. Prediction: 87-63 Indiana.

T.M. Selection: Harvard.

I like Harvard to cover the spread against Dartmouth in this game on Monday. Harvard has won 4 of their previous 5 games and they just won their most recent game on the road over Columbia. They looked good in that game, winning it by 9 points and putting up 90+ points in the game. Harvard has put up 70+ points in 3 games in a row and they have done it in 5 of their previous 6 games. I expect them to put up a lot of points on Dartmouth here since Dartmouth has not looked good in a lot of games this year and they are not the best on their home court either. Dartmouth has just 1 win in 10 games and they haven't looked good in their conference play this year. They just lost their most recent game to Penn by 10 points and they didn't even reach 70 points in that game. Dartmouth doesn't have a strong offense that scores a ton of points and I think that is going to hurt them in this game. Harvard has been putting up a lot of points in their games and I think Dartmouth isn't going to be able to keep up with them. Dartmouth has put up 70+ points in 1/5 games in their L5 and in most of those games they failed to even put up 60+ points. Dartmouth makes up for that with their play on defense but their defense isn't that great or they wouldn't be 4-10 this year. I don't think their defense is going to stop Harvard enough in this game and I expect Harvard to overpower them by putting up a lot of points. I like Harvard to cover the spread here.

T.M. Prediction: 74-63 Harvard.

T.M. Selection: George Mason.

I like George Mason to cover the spread against George Washington in this game on Monday. George Mason has had a lot of rest and time to prepare for this game. They have only played 1 game between now and December 21st. They had experienced some postponed games after December 21st and did not hit the court again until January 1st. They had to dive right back into the action after 10 days of not playing and they had to face a top 10 team in the country too. That was a road game for them but they looked really good and held their own against Kansas only losing by 9 points. That was their last game played so again, they haven't played a game in over 2 weeks but I think they are going to be fine here. If they were able to come out and play the way they did against Kansas after no games for 10 days then I think they will be good against a much weaker team here. They have had plenty of time to prepare and this is also the start of their conference play this year so I expect them to come out strong in this game. They haven't been terrible on the road this year and they even have a road win over Georgia under their belt this year. George Washington has been playing games lately, their 2 most recent games were on January 8th and 11th and they lost both of those games, 1 at home and 1 on the road. They also lost both of those games by 20+ points and failed to score 60+ points in both games while giving up 80+ in both. I don't think George Washington is going to have the offense to beat George Mason here or cover the spread. George Mason had to play some good defense to keep that game with Kansas close and if George Washington isn't even hitting 60 points in their games lately, then I don't think it's going to happen here for them. I like George Mason to cover the spread in this game.

T.M. Prediction: 76-59 George Mason.

T.M. Selection: Boston Celtics.

I like the Boston Celtics to cover the spread against the New Orleans Pelicans in this game on Monday. The Celtics have looked good lately, they have 4 wins in their previous 5 games. They have also looked good on their home court this year and I expect them to continue playing well at home here. They have won 3 home games in a row and their most recent home game was a 2 point win against the Bulls who are currently leading the East. Marcus Smart will probably miss this game but he is the only player on the Celtics injury report and I think they have enough bench depth to cover his absence against the Pelicans. The Pelicans have not been good this year and they have looked really bad in their road games. They just lost their most recent game on the road to the Nets by 15 points and that ended the run of 2 wins in a row that they had strung together. Both of those wins came at home though and they have looked much worse in their road games lately. The Pelicans have lost 4 road games in a row and 2 of those games they lost by 15+ points. The Celtics haven't been clicking this year but they still have a lot of skilled players on their team and I think they should be performing a lot better than what they have been up to this point. I think it is only a matter of time until the Celtics start to get really hot and go on a big run. They have already looked much better lately and have been getting very healthy. I like the healthy Celtics team at home to cover the spread here. 

T.M. Selection: 115-95 Celtics.

T.M. Selection: Arizona Cardinals.

I like the Arizona Cardinals to cover the spread against the LA Rams in this game on Monday. The Cardinals were stumbling to the finish line in the 2nd half of the season, they managed to rip a win off the Cowboys 2 weeks ago but they still lost 4 of their 5 final games to the regular season. I think the Cardinals were just trying to make it to this game in the 2nd half of the season, they had lost a lot of players to injury and were playing with a lot of backups in their games in the 2nd half of the year. I think the Cardinals will have a lot of their players coming back for this game and that will help them out significantly. They should be getting Edmunds and Moore back and that will be a big boost to their offense which they will need here. They have already seen the Rams twice this year and blew them out in 1 game in LA but then lost a close game 30-23 in their last meeting in Arizona. The Cardinals have actually been better on the road this year and they finished as the best road team in the league this year, losing just 1 game in 9 on the road. The Rams have struggled at home this year losing 3 of their 8 games there, including their game against the Cardinals earlier in the year. The Rams had won 5 games in a row before losing their final game of the regular season to the 49ers. The Rams offense was putting up a lot of points in those games but Stafford was not playing well himself and he was turning the ball over a lot in those games. Stafford has been averaging 2 interceptions thrown per game over their final 4 games of the season and I think he is going to get himself into trouble in this game. The Cardinals have a good defense and their strength is in their pass rush and pass defense. McVay loves to throw the ball and go for the big plays but Stafford has not looked good and has not been accurate in some games this year and I think he will get into trouble under all that pressure from the Cardinals defense. Kyler Murray has looked good all year for the Cardinals and their offense even looked alright under Colt McCoy. They should be getting some weapons back here and I think Murray will be able to move the ball well and put up points on the Rams in this game. The Cardinals will be able to keep up on offense with the Rams but I think their defense is better and is going to cause some turnovers in this game which will be the deciding factor. Even if the Cardinals don't win here, their defense will keep this game close enough. I like the Cardinals to cover the spread here.

T.M. Prediction: 30-27 Cardinals.