Sports Handicapper ASA's Picks & Predictions

#925/926 ASA PLAY ON Over 8 Runs (-105) – Tampa Bay Rays at Milwaukee Brewers, Monday at 7:40 PM ET - Both teams are off to hot starts at the plate this season.  The Rays are hitting .339 (#1 in AL) and the Brewers are hitting .337 (#1 in NL) and we expect both will stay hot here.  Nick Martinez gets the start for Tampa Bay here and he got absolutely pummeled in spring training as he went 0-4 with a 14.49 ERA in his 4 starts.  The veteran has seen his better days on the mound and last season compiled a 4.72 ERA in his 26 starts.  He was better as a reliever than a starter last season. The Brewers should pound him and they'll need to because we do not expect much success for Kyle Harrison here.  The young hurler is on his 3rd team in 3 seasons and he has a 4.39 ERA in his MLB career.  Harrison generally does get a lot of strikeouts but his overall numbers tell the full story and he had a 4.61 ERA in his starts last season.  The Brewers bullpen has been strong so far this season but the Rays bullpen has really struggled.  All 3 Rays games this season have reached double digits in runs and 2 of the 3 Brewers games have totaled more than a dozen runs as Milwaukee is red hot to start the year.  Our computer math model projects a total of 10 to 11 runs here and even if it only gets to 9 that is still a winning ticket for us. We are strong on the over the Over in this one.  

#77/78 ASA TOP PLAY ON OVER 6.5 Goals (-110) - Vancouver Canucks at Vegas Golden Knights, Monday at 10 PM ET - Great spot for an over.  Vegas has allowed 19 goals in regulation time of its last 5 losses.  The Knights have scored about 5 goals per game over their last 16 wins!  Vegas is a huge favorite here as the lowly Canucks are in town.  While the Golden Knights have been getting sub-par goaltending of late, the Canucks have had this problem for a very long time!  Vancouver has allowed 4.1 goals per game in going 6-26-5 in their last 37 games!  Yes, just 6 wins in their last 37 games and a lot of it has had to do with not being able to keep the puck out of their own net.  Vegas is a solid 1.5 goal favorite on the goal line here and our projections are putting this game in a 5-3 range.  The Golden Knights have allowed at least 3 goals in 5 of their last 6 games.  Vancouver has allowed 5 goals per game on average in their current 5-game losing streak.  The Canucks have been shutout twice in their last dozen games but scored an average of 3 goals in the other 10 games.  The way Vegas has been conceding goals we can expect Vancouver to get to 3 here but also these Canucks can't slow down a Golden Knights team off B2B2B losses and gunning hard for a playoff spot!  Vegas has scored an average of 4 goals the last 4 times they entered a home game on a losing streak of 2 or more games.  Against the lowly Canucks, the Golden Knights should not only get to the 4 goal mark, they are likely to top it!  This game shows the highest probability of finishing in a range of 7 to 9 goals per our computer math model.  Over for a top game here! 

ASA NBA play on OVER 222 Boston Celtics at Atlanta Hawks, 7:40pm ET - These two teams are in playoff mode with the Celtics 2nd in the Eastern Conference, the Hawks currently sit 6th. The Hawks are cooking right now with a 13-2 SU record in their last 15 games with the second-best Net rating over that stretch of games at +12.2. Boston is no slouch over that same stretch of games with an 11-4 SU record with a Net rating of +7.1. The Hawks have been shooting lights out with the 5th best eFG% of 57.5% over their last 15 games. The Celtics rank 14th in offensive efficiency over that same 10 game period. Atlanta is on a 6-2 OVER streak largely due to an offensive that has scored 123 or more points in six of those eight. One of the games they didn’t put up great offensive numbers was a few nights ago in Boston when they scored 102. Atlanta had a bad shooting night, especially from deep when they hit just 15/42. Boston just put up 119 points against a Thunder defense that is the best in the league and have scored 117 or more in 4 of their last seven games. Boston plays slow, but the Hawks counter with the 3rd fastest paced offense in the NBA. In the three meetings between these two teams this season they produced 211, 223 and 238 total points. The C’s are coming off a game on Sunday and fatigue could be a factor on the defensive end of the court. The Hawks will shoot better on their home court than they did in Boston last week. We expect this game to be closer to the league average (231) than below it….BET OVER!