A dramatic contrast in styles highlights the 2nd round matchup between Utah and Golden State. Utah has a quick turnaround after closing out the Clippers on the road in a game 7 while Golden State dominated Portland in a sweep.

Golden State has won 19 of their last 20 games – the lone loss being to Utah at the Oracle. But it’s hard to look at the regular season in this case. The Warriors won the season series 2-1 but key players were missing for one or both teams in every game.

The biggest and most obvious  ... 

Two teams with a history of bad blood will go at it in the 2nd round. Led by John Wall, the Wizards defeated Atlanta in the 1st round while Boston and Isaiah Thomas overcame major off-court adversity to cruise past Chicago. Wall and Thomas will be the focus as both dynamic guards run the show for their respective teams.

These two teams split in the regular season, each winning two games on their home court. The key to Boston’s success will be their ability to limit the Wizards fast break points. In their two regular season wins against  ... 

After meeting in the conference finals last season, these two teams get the rematch in the 2nd round this year. Toronto is coming off a tough series win over Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks while the Cavs breezed past Indiana.

Cleveland won the regular season series 3-1 although not much can be taken from that. The first three games were all before Christmas and in the lone Toronto win, Cleveland’s Big Three didn’t play.

It will be interesting to see if the Raptors continue their newfound small-ball movement in this series. After the 3rd game of the Milwaukee  ... 

An all Texas matchup in what should be a very competitive second round series begins on Monday. The Spurs won the regular season series 3-1 – winning twice at Houston – but no game was decided by more than 6 points and the average margin of victory was 3 points.

James Harden and Kawhi Leonard each headlined the offense for their respective teams and it should be more of the same. The one glaringly obvious takeaway from the regular season meetings was the Spurs ability to limit Houston’s three-point shooting. This will be the key to this  ... 

The MLB season is a long grind because of the sheer number of games but that also creates opportunity for value if you have patience and understand line movements. One profitable way to find value is to follow steam moves on MLB money line plays. A steam move is defined as a sudden, drastic and uniform line movement across the entire sports betting marketplace. For the most part, a steam move originates from respected sharp money.

Basically, steam chasing is a way to be on the side with sharp money and get that number at the cheapest/most  ... 

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) BOSTON vs. (8) CHICAGO

With Cleveland’s late season problems, the Celtics were able to grab the East’s number one seed. Chicago somehow managed to hold on to the 8 seed while dealing with injuries and drama. While the teams split the regular season, I just don’t see a scenario where Chicago can win this series. The Bulls are prone to long stretches of not scoring and a match-up against the defensive-minded Celtics will only magnify that. I expect an ugly, physical series with lots of missed shots, fouls and free throws. For the Bulls to  ...