Doc’s Sports NBA Picks & Against the Spread Plays

4-unit Play Take #67 Toronto Maple Leafs over Boston Bruins (8:05pm EST) The Toronto Maple Leafs come into tonight's action down 3-1 in the series, but don't count them out just yet. Toronto has played better than the final scores indicate, and they don't deserve to be this big of an underdog tonight in Game 5. Patrice Bergeron is banged up for Boston and that could be an issue despite Boston playing well through it in the last contest. The value is on Toronto and that's the direction we're looking tonight.

Best of Luck - Doc's Sports

3-unit Play Take #963 Washington Nationals over Los Angeles Dodgers (9:10pm EST) Stephen Strasburg has finally reached the elite level. He's always been high on potential, but last year he put it all together going 15-4 with a 2.52 ERA. He's going to be close to an auto-bet for me with lines this low, especially against struggling teams like the Dodgers. Play the Nationals here at the short price.

4-unit Play Take #962 San Diego Padres/Arizona Diamondbacks UNDER (8:10 pm EST) The Diamondbacks are using the humidor at Chase Field this season in an effort to reduce scoring. So far it's worked. Unders are 6-3 in the D-Backs' first nine home games and only one of those unders was even close to the number. The Rockies did this years ago in Coors Field and scoring fell dramatically in the first season. Bettors who caught on early cashed in big. I really like tonight's starting pitchers - Clayton Richard and Zack Godley. Both are underrated, particularly Godley who could be a legitimate #2 starter in the making. He posted a 3.37 ERA in 155 innings of work last season, despite pitching half of those innings in Chase Field. This season he's off to a good start with a 3.00 ERA. Play the UNDER tonight in this one.

Free MLB Baseball Prediction From Doc's Sports : Take 'Under' Toronto at New York Yankees (1 p.m., Saturday, April 21) The Blue Jays and Yankees go at it on Saturday afternoon, and I don't expect to see many runs. Jaime Garcia is slated to go for the Jays, and he's one of those guys that always puts up better numbers than people expect. If he could just stay healthy for an extended period of time then Garcia could be an All-Star pitcher. The Yanks are scheduled to go with Jordan Montgomery. He put up solid numbers last season and is still looking for his rhythm in 2018. The good news is that New York has an amazing bullpen to carry their weaker starters. If Montgomery just gets through five quality innings, the pen can take over and dominate. Everyone is expecting a ton of Yankees' OVERS this season with the addition of Giancarlo Stanton to an already-powerful lineup. However, I think the Yankees bullpen will be a bigger story, and the UNDERS will be where the value is. Play the UNDER between the Blue Jays and Yankees in our Saturday Free Play selection. Doc's has recorded 11 of 15 winning days on the diamond and is primed for their biggest season ye

4-unit Play Take #966 New York Yankees (-145) over Toronto Blue Jays (1:05pm EST)  I’m not a believer in the Toronto Blue Jays. They’re off to a fantastic 12-6 start to the season, but there are several guys in the lineup putting up unsustainable numbers. The Jays are third in the AL in home runs, but are led by Yangervis Solarte (4), Aledmys Diaz (4) and Steve Pearce (3). Those guys aren’t going to keep connecting on dingers at that kind of rate. The Yankees are a little banged up right now and it’s hurt their early season performance. However, the offense has stepped it up in recent games and Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez aren’t going to bat near the Mendoza line all season long. They get to tee of on Marcus Stroman on Saturday afternoon. The young right-hander comes in with a 7.98 ERA and has had horrible control in the early going. He’s walked 10 batters in 14.2 innings of work and his velocity is down significantly since last season. Jordan Montgomery has been solid for the Yanks, but it’s the bullpen behind him that is the real asset. So far New York has a mediocre 4.30 bullpen ERA. By season’s end, they’ll be near the top five in the baseball. There’s just too many talented, hard-throwing relievers. We’re selling high on the Blue Jays and buying low on the Yanks. Take New York at home on Saturday.

Best of Luck – Doc’s Sports

We think the Wolves had their chance in Game 1 when the Rockets had an off game, but they blew it. Now this series is all Houston. We are getting a solid line here since the Rockets are on the road, but this team was 24-17 ATS on the road this season despite facing some very inflated numbers. We actually had this line handicapped at Houston -7.5 so we think this line has very nice value. We like the Wolves as a team but this squad looks like they are just happy to be here in the postseason and they need to grow and add another piece or two before we can take them seriously as a real contender.

We have the Jazz winning this series at an underdog price and after gaining home-court advantage with a strong win in OKC for Game 2, this is the next step in the progression for this team to advance to the next round. The Big Three experiment in OKC was a failure in our minds and this Utah team is the better ballclub at this point in the season. They started off the season real slow when dealing with injuries but this team has been one of the best clubs in the NBA down the stretch of the regular season and we expect them to take care of business here at home in what we think will be a win by seven or more points on Saturday.