Rating: 2 Units

UNLV’s only wins have been against Kansas State – who gets drilled just about every game -- and New Mexico, who’s also been getting routed as a matter of course and who lost to San Jose State on Saturday. San Jose State! Utah State, they got class at 12-4 and a pair of wins vs. San Diego State. Consider that Utah State is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 road games, 9-1 ATS in their last 10 games overall, 9-1 ATS in their last 10 games as a favorite, 8-1 ATS in their last 9 Monday games, and 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games following a ATS loss.

Rating: 2 Units

The Cowboys were good enough to lead Baylor by 4 points after 20 minutes without Cade Cunningham and Rondel Walker. Iowa State hasn’t played since Jan. 9, owns zero (0) wins against real teams (they have 2, vs. Ark-Pine Bluff and Jackson State).

NCAAB Play of the Day

When he was with VCU, Texas Tech’s 6’7” Marcus Santos-Silva wasn’t playing in the paint against many guys like West Virginia’s 6’10” Derek Culver. Away from that advantage-Mountaineers, West Virginia opponents are making only 29.1% of their three-pointers. Huggins’ fellas came off three postponements to get a good tune-up game under their belt at Kansas State on Saturday. “I thought we were a bit rusty offensively, but defensively we stepped up and played one of our best games of the year,” said guard Miles McBride. He had a big game vs. Tech last season and now the rust has been knocked off. Some of that rust may be transferred to the Red Raiders, who’ve had their last two games postponed. Rust never sleeps.

Rating: 2 Units

Ottawa's arrival provides the Canucks an opportunity to build some momentum. The Senators enter after a 6-3 loss in Winnipeg to kick off a seven-game road swing, in a game in which they held a 3-2 lead going into the third period but surrendered four unanswered goals. They dropped three straight games to the Jets and have lost four consecutive outings since upsetting the Toronto Maple Leafs in their season opener. Consider that Ottawa is 7-20 in their last 27 vs. a team with a losing record.

Rating: 2 Units

Games like last night against the Knicks, and this second of back-to-backs vs. OKC, need to be high-priority games for the Blazers right now and moving forward. Because if they can’t beat relative bums like these while Nurkic and McCollum are out, then they will lose contact with the “body of eight” in the Western Conference, where they entered the weekend 8-6 in sixth place overall. But they are only one (1) game out of ninth, 1.5 games out of eleventh, 2.5 games out of twelfth, 3.5 games out of fourteenth and 4.5 games out of last. Asking Lillard to do too much, too soon in a season, can potentially break him down. And then, you could just hand them a ticket to ride in the clown car with Sacramento.

Rating: 2 Units

Indiana Pacers first-year coach Nate Bjorkgren will try to gain a split with his former boss and Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse Monday night when the teams complete a two-game set at Indianapolis. The Raptors won the opener of the back-to-back games 107-102 on Sunday afternoon. The Raptors, who have won five of their past six games, were without Kyle Lowry (infected toe) and Pascal Siakam (left knee swelling). Their status for Monday was uncertain. The Pacers have lost three of their past four games. Consider that Toronto is 11-5 ATS in their last 16 games as an underdog.

Rating: 2 Units

The Pelicans are rested but not really rested. What’s that you say? Well, they are only one day removed from their long stretch on the road, where they were 1-5, capping it off with a loss at Minnesota, who hadn’t been beating anybody. Way to go, Van Gundy! They play home for the first time since they… lost three straight here to Indiana, OKC and Charlotte on Jan. 4, 6, 8! Way to go, Van Gundy.

NBA Play of the Day

The Lakers’ road trip continues with game number three of seven, a home invasion situation for which they were in town yesterday while the Cavaliers were battling in Boston. The Lakers’ current road tally is now 9-0, following up on a strong 2019-20 road season. Cleveland was averaging only 98 points per game until the Nets hit town with the The Three Ball Hogs and the Cavs scored 113 and 125 in regulation. Was that a two-shot deal against defense-less superstars coached by Steve Nash/Mike Dantoni and obsessed with scoring points? The Lakers, despite having Lebron and Lebrow, are more interested in a well-rounded experience. After Anthony Davis snapped out of a recent funk during a 21-point win in his hometown of Chicago (we projected it by 22, sorry for being off), figure Lebron to show up large for his home-area peeps, even if nobody is in the arena. He had 32-14-12 in his re-return to Cleveland in 2018-19, for the 37-45 Lakers team (that was 23-21 at the time, before he got hurt). You see how these guys are operating, right?