NBA Playoff Pick-a-thon Day 49: You Know What They Say About Small Hands and Small Feet

Small gloves and small shoes. AND...and it's an important one - better chance of the basketball leaving your fingers before the twenty four second shot clock goes off. Had Kawhi Leonard taken that shot late in the game, not only would the shot clock have expired but I would have had time to make myself a cappuccino, bake some homemade cookies, and put my daughter to bed before it left his fingertips. The hypothetical result - twenty four second violation, turnover, Miami Heat ties the game in regulation, and inevitably win and cover in OT against the deflated San Antonio Spurs. 

                     

Fortunately for the San Antonio Spurs, it was The Little Frenchman Tony Parker - affectionately known as Holly MacKenzie in the locker room - who scrambled from his seated position fifteen feet from the basket and somehow managed to bury the shot and the Miami Heat only hundredths of seconds before the horizontal red light on the backboard lit up. Although "It's a game of inches" was an expression originally used in horseshoes, it was later usurped by the NFL during a cold December battle in 1945 between the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Rams, and is now commonly used to describe nearly every sport from basketball to baseball to hockey to backgammon. As such, I refuse to recycle that garbage cliche, because the truth is basketball is a metric game of centimeters.

                   

The non-hypothetical, very real result - shot counts, four point lead, home court advantage stolen, San Antonio Spurs three games away from another NBA title. Oh, and Marco and I continued our undefeated streak of NBA Finals picks. And by continued I mean started.

POST-SEASON RECORD TO DATE: 49-29 ATS 

NBA FINALS: 1-0 ATS and SU

KYLE'S NHL PICKS TO DATE: 50-36-1

KYLE'S MLB PICKS TO DATE: 154-120-9

Short but sweet. Happy Friday everyone.

Vinny and Marco

PS Remember - if you need to do any shopping at any of the sites in the following paragraph, do it through TSZ because they might just send us a commission.

The Spread Zone is now unofficially sponsored by Amazon.com. Don't worry, we'll never sell out entirely. But neither will they - check out the great sales on anything you can imagine. Rival bids for sponsorship include ebay.com, Oldnavy.com, 1800flowers.com, and32redpoker.com (the best spot for you on-line gamblers). Click around and support The Spread Zone.


KYLE'S CORNER: Sports Betting vs Gambling

For those of you who have been following me recently, there's something you have to understand about system sports betting versus gambling. While both can be a bit of a roller coaster, system sports betting is inherently less risky and the troughs should always be less frequent and with less depth than the crests. A big mistake often made by novices is to let the dips or losing streaks veer them away from the system, instilling their opinions or "heart picks" as Vinny likes to call them, which essentially turns system sports betting into gambling. Here's a great article for anyone out there who's just beginning.

http://www.sportsbettingsystemreview.com/sportsbettingforbeginners/

Now that we've weathered the latest storm, looks like blue skies filled the horizon yesterday afternoon. Minus a close miss on the NHL under the rest of the day was finally a clean sweep, about time. 




NHL: Overall: 50-36-1

MLB: Overall: 154-120-9*

*Includes Wednesday's totals I missed updating*

Thursday

MLB: 4-0 *Finally broke the cold streak.
NHL: 0-1, under was 4.5& score was 3-2 unfortunately.

Friday's Action
NHL:




Pittsburgh @ Boston: Pittsburgh to win, Rask to make >30 saves. Malkin >2.5 shots. (No way they will let themselves get swept)

MLB:

Pitchers To Back:



DET:   Verlander (7-4, 3.70 ERA)
BAL:   Hammel (7-3, 5.43 ERA)
NYM:   Harvey (5-0, 2.17 ERA)
CHW:   Sale (5-3, 2.44 ERA)
PHI:   Lee (7-2, 2.45 ERA)
COL:   De La Rosa (7-3, 3.10 ERA)
NYY:   Kuroda (6-4, 2.59 ERA)
ARI:   Corbin (9-0, 2.06 ERA)
LAD:   Ryu (6-2, 2.89 ERA)

Overs:



NYY:   Kuroda (6-4, 2.59 ERA) Team over 4.5
TEX:   Tepesch (3-4, 3.44 ERA) @ TOR:   Rogers (1-2, 3.77 ERA) O9.5
LAA:   Hanson (2-2, 4.19 ERA) @ BOS:   Doubront (4-2, 4.88 ERA) O10.5
BAL:   Hammel (7-3, 5.43 ERA) @ TB:   Archer (0-1, 11.25 ERA) O8.5

Good luck!

Kyle

NBA Playoff Pick-a-thon: And on the 28th Day God said,

"Vinny! Marco! Take a freakin' morning off, dudes."

Seriously. Coin flips, names in a hat, darts at a board, and glory holes would all get us happier endings than the ones we've been having this week. Another 0-2 ATS night, 1-7 ATS in our last eight after beginning the conference semi's at a staggering 11-2 ATS, and its only by the grace of an impossibly hot start to the playoffs that our numbers still look like this:

POST-SEASON RECORD TO DATE: 42-23 ATS 

CONFIDENCE EFFICIENCY RATING (CER): 83/126 or .66

TOP CONFIDENCE PICKS THROUGH DAY 27: 17-9 ATS

Two things are saving our asses right now. First and foremost is the wonderfully dichotomous nature of gamblers. When winning, they are gregarious, generous, grateful addicts who love to share in their victories because it adds a certain virtue to their disease. "Gambling's not so bad. He's buying us all drinks," or "And then she gave me this watch, telling me it was my hideous orange blazer that made her decide to take Baltimore in the Divisional round at Mile High. And I thought she hated that blazer." 



When they're losing, however, they blame no one - outwardly - because they know it will only fuel the fire of contempt and judgement that grows in their concerned friends and families. Instead, they temper their defeats with "I'll get 'em next time," or (hypothetically) "I was right - I just didn't know about the George Hill concussion." Inwardly, they might hold others accountable including us here at TSZ, but more often than not The Spread Zone has become a place where gamblers can come to share their successes and find comfort in their...let's just call them "growth edges." 

So thank you gamblers of the world for your wonderfully dis-eased nature. Even when we're not helping you win, we're here for you with understanding, compassion, and most of all a little levity. 

The other thing we have going for us can be summed up in two words, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

KYLE'S CORNER

I swear, whenever I have free time my girlfriend always finds a way to ruin it with stupid, asinine stuff to do. No one with a penis ever needs to be 'out' for the sake of being 'out.' Ugh.

"Let's just go out and enjoy the sun!" or "Why would you want be inside today watching sports?" said no man ever.  They should only let women be parole officers cause it's a natural instinct to have to know where their men are 24/7 and force them to check in with them.

Anyways...as for the recap, another solid day. The 2 teams won but the props were off. I hope most people put 2 units on the game and 1 on the prop but that's generally common betting sense.

NHL: 2-2

Overall: 33-20

MLB: 4-2-2  (We had 2 no actions on the SEA@NYY due to the last second pitching change, it voided all bets)

Overall: 74-50-6

NHL:  Only one game today and it's the biggest mis-match of this round. Imagine Bill Belichick vs your cat at Madden 2013 with Wilfred Brimley in the background heckling your cat.

Ottawa @ Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh to win, by (-1.5), Team over 3 goals (If it's 3.5 no action).

MLB: A person in our comment section asked for a little clarification on Baseball, so here goes:

1. The pitcher ride system, is simply to bet on the team for the pitcher highlighted below the "Pitcher ride section", so if the pitcher in question is R.A. DIckey of Toronto you bet on Toronto to win.

2. The overs are simply the game total runs which encapsulates both teams total runs scored, so Team A: 4 runs and Team B: 7 runs = total 11 and if the over is 8.5 then it's a winner.

Also to respond to Mysterio, I'm a variance better, I usually always hit 60%-ish or higher (Currently 60 in MLB and 63 in NHL) and  career/season wise , so I make at least 10 bets per day generally just to have an appropriate sample size. 

Also, I feel it's irresponsible to say or give the word lock to anything in sports, they are games and anything can happen, spread out your bets evenly and grow your portfolio like you would trading stocks, I look at it from that perspective.

I love the feedback and I'm always happy to answer any questions if you guys have any, anyways on to the Baseball picks.

Pitcher ride/follow:

BAL:   Hammel (5-1, 4.93 ERA)
NYM:   Harvey (4-0, 1.44 ERA)
PIT:   Gomez (2-0, 2.28 ERA)
BOS:   Buchholz (6-0, 1.69 ERA)
STL:   Garcia (4-2, 2.88 ERA)
CHW:   Sale (4-2, 2.88 ERA)
KC:   Shields (2-3, 2.48 ERA)

Overs!:

KC:   Shields (2-3, 2.48 ERA) @ OAK:   Parker (2-5, 6.86 ERA)

WSH:   Gonzalez (3-2, 4.20 ERA) @ SD:   Smith (0-0, 54.00 ERA)

LAD:   Ryu (4-2, 3.40 ERA) @ ATL:   Maholm (4-4, 3.94 ERA)
Boston Red Sox team over 5

DET:   Porcello (1-2, 6.68 ERA) @ TEX:   Tepesch (3-3, 4.03 ERA)

TOR:   Buehrle (1-2, 6.19 ERA) @ NYY:   Kuroda (5-2, 2.31 ERA)

SEA:   Maurer (2-5, 5.97 ERA) @ CLE:   Jimenez (3-2, 5.55 ERA)

TB:   Hellickson (1-2, 5.25 ERA) @ BAL:   Hammel (5-1, 4.93 ERA)
New York Mets team over 4.5

Good luck everyone!

-Kyle's corner