In today’s SportSense Entertainment Newsletter…

We’ve taken the last few days off, so there were no model predictions yesterday.

Money Line Predictions: 0-0

Over/Under Predictions: 0-0

Spread Predictions: 0-0

3-star Predictions: 0-0

Money Line Predictions: 0-0

Over/Under Predictions: 0-0

Puck Line Predictions: 0-0

3-star Predictions: 0-0

Money Line Predictions: 0-0

Over/Under Predictions: 0-0-0

Run Line Predictions: 0-0

3-star Predictions: 0-0

There is one NBA game set to take place today, with that matchup being Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers. Denver owns a 3-0 series lead, needing just one more win to make the NBA Finals.

Denver Nuggets @ Los Angeles Lakers

Model Predicts- Lakers ML, OVER 224.5, Lakers -3

The Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers will square off in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday night.

Denver enters tonight’s matchup up 3-0 in the series, a surprise given how well the Lakers have played in the postseason. However, Denver is the No.1 seed in the West, so seeing them on the doorstep of the NBA Finals shouldn’t be all that shocking.

Los Angeles desperately needs a win tonight in order to keep its season above, and luckily for the Lakers they will be on their home court where they have thrived all postseason. Will we see that home court success continue, or will Denver get the sweep and start preparing to win the title?

Denver Nuggets

Denver has been the most solid team out West all season long. The Nuggets ended the regular season with a 53-29 record, and in 14 postseason games have gone 11-3 overall.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Denver’s offense is what has put it over the top. Per NBA.com the Nuggets rank first in Offensive Rating in the postseason, nearly two points higher than any of the other 15 playoff teams. The three-pointer has been the largest reason why, an area of the floor that the Nuggets are shooting 38.8% from in the postseason.

However, playing on the road has proven to be a difficult task for Denver, which of course is where the Nuggets find themselves tonight.

Denver was just 19-22 on the road in the regular season, much worse when compared to its stellar 34-7 home record. We’ve seen similar splits in the postseason, where Denver is a perfect 8-0 at home but just 3-3 on the road.

Part of the reason for the road struggles has been the three-pointer, where Denver is shooting 36.8% from as the road team in the postseason. That is down from 40.2% when Denver is at home, proving that the Nuggets aren’t nearly as comfortable from deep as the visiting team.

Los Angeles Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers have had quite the run in the postseason, but LA is going to need some heroic performances moving forward in order to keep its title hopes alive.

Los Angeles finds itself in an 0-3 hole because it has blown up on the defensive end of the floor. NBA.com has the Lakers listed with a 120.9 Defensive Rating in the series against Denver, a sharp spike from their 106.5 in the first two rounds against Memphis and Golden State.

However, despite not having any wins in the series, the Lakers still have some advantages over Denver.

Los Angeles’ largest advantage comes in the foul department, an area that the Lakers were great in all year. According to TeamRankings LA ranked first in the NBA in free throw attempts per game (26.3), and in this series we have seen that number rise slightly to 27.0. Meanwhile, Denver has had just 19.7 free throw attempts per game in this series, lagging significantly behind the Lakers.

Additionally, the Lakers have garnered a slight advantage in the paint, averaging 49.3 points per game from that area of the floor in the series. Denver is averaging 44.7 points per game in the paint during the Western Conference Finals.

What’s the Play?

The Denver Nuggets have all the momentum entering today, making the model’s prediction of Lakers -3 tough to justify. However, we agree with our model that the Lakers spread is a 3-star play.

Having the whistle on your side is the biggest advantage in sports, and eventually it is going to result in a win for the Lakers. LA gets to the charity stripe at a much higher frequency than Denver, and when you combine that with the lack of a defensive presence in the paint for Denver, you get a recipe for a Lakers win.

Additionally, the Lakers are 6-1 at home in the postseason with a 101.6 Defensive Rating, the best of any team in the postseason. As previously mentioned, Denver is 3-3 on the road in the postseason with a 115.4 Defensive Rating.

We’ll side with the better defense in what is a must win. The Lakers might not have the tools to come close to winning this series, but we agree with the model they can get one more win and covert the spread.

3-star play: Lakers -3 (-110)

Money Line Trends💰

• Denver Nuggets- 11-3 overall in postseason, 3-3 as the away team

• Los Angeles Lakers- 8-7 overall in postseason, 6-1 as the home team

Over/Under Trends↕️

• Denver Nuggets- Over is 8-6 overall in postseason, 4-2 as the away team with average total of 232.17

• Los Angeles Lakers- Over is 8-7 overall in postseason, 3-4 as the home team with average total of 218.43

Spread Trends➕➖

• Denver Nuggets- 8-6 against the spread (ATS) in postseason, 3-3 ATS as the away team

• Los Angeles Lakers- 10-5 ATS in postseason, 6-1 ATS as the home team

Denver Nuggets @ Los Angeles Lakers

• Denver Nuggets

  • Collin Gillespie (OUT)

• Los Angeles Lakers

  • LeBron James (Game Time Decision), Anthony Davis (Game Time Decision)

🔥 Miami goes up 3-0 on Boston. The Miami Heat, the Eastern Conference’s No.8 overall seed, is now one win away from going back to the NBA Finals after defeating the Boston Celtics 128-102 on Sunday night. The win marked Miami’s 11th of the postseason and fifth in the last six games. Jimmy Butler surprisingly took a back seat on the offensive end with just 16 points, but Duncan Robinson (22 points) and Gabe Vincent (29 points) picked up the slack and combined to shoot 68.8% form behind the arc. Game 4 will be played on Tuesday night in Boston.

👏 Carmelo Anthony officially retires from basketball. After 19 seasons in the NBA, Carmelo Anthony has officially called it quits. Anthony played most of his career with the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks, but he would also be a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, and Los Angeles Lakers towards the tail-end of his career. Anthony is largely known for being on of the most lethal scorers in NBA history, tallying 28,289 points which is the ninth-most in NBA history.

Today we have one NHL game scheduled to take place between the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers. Florida is up 2-0 in the series after defeating Carolina in overtime of Game 1 and Game 2.

There are no 3-star plays in the NHL today.

Money Line Trends💰

• Carolina Hurricanes- 8-5 overall in postseason, 3-2 as the away team

• Florida Panthers- 10-4 overall in postseason, 2-3 as the home team

Over/Under Trends↕️

• Carolina Hurricanes- Over is 7-6 overall in postseason, 4-1 as the away team with average total of 7.00

• Florida Panthers- Over is 5-9 overall in postseason, 0-7 in last seven games with average total of 4.57

Puck Line Trends➕➖

• Carolina Hurricanes- Puck line is 5-8 overall in postseason, 3-2 as the away team

• Florida Panthers- Puck line is 11-3 overall in postseason, 3-2 as the home team

Carolina Hurricanes @ Florida Panthers

• Carolina Hurricanes

  • Andrei Svechnikov (OUT)

• Florida Panthers

  • No Players

Golden Knights take 2-0 series lead over Dallas. The Las Vegas Golden Knights continued their stellar playoff run with a 3-2 overtime victory against the Stars on Sunday. Chandler Stephenson scored the game-winning just over a minute in to extra time, giving Vegas its second overtime win in a row after being down 2-1 to start the third period. Game 3 will be played on Tuesday in Dallas.

Calgary finds a new General Manager. The Calgary Flames have found a new GM after several weeks of searching. Craig Conroy, a former Flames player and assistant general manager for Calgary, has been given a promotion to one of the highest roles in the front office. The hiring marks the start of filling several vacant positions within the club, with Calgary still looking for a new head coach after Darryl Sutter was fired earlier this month.

There are 12 MLB games scheduled to take place today. However, due to some gaps in the early season data, our model has predictions for six of today’s matchups.

There are no 3-star plays in the NHL today.

Money Line Trends💰

• Philadelphia Phillies- 22-24 overall, 13-8 as the home team

• Minnesota Twins- 25-22 overall, 14-8 as the home team

• Houston Astros- 27-19 overall, 7-0 in last seven games

Over/Under Trends↕️

• Oakland Athletics- Over is 27-19-2 overall, 15-7-1 as the away team

• Seattle Mariners- Over is 22-23-1 overall, 11-10-1 as the away team

Run Line Trends➕➖

• Arizona Diamondbacks- Run line is 27-20 overall, 15-8 as the away team

• Seattle Mariners- Run line is 7-11 overall as a home favorite, 7-5 against division opponents (Play AL West rival Oakland today)

Various injuries around the league. See full injury report at MLB.com

💪 Luis Severino is back on the mound. New York Yankees pitcher Luis Severino has been out of commission since spring training, but made his return to the mound yesterday against Cincinnati. Severino pitched 4.2 innings, tallying five strikeouts and allowing just one run. He would throw 54 of his 75 pitches fro strikes, giving New York a huge boost in their sweep of the Reds.

🤕 Julio Urías lands on the IL. Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías has been placed on the 15-day IL with a hamstring injury. He will join Dustin May on the IL, who left a matchup last week against the Twins after only one inning. Urías finished third in NL Cy Young voting last season, but through ten starts this year owns a 4.39 ERA and 5-4 record.

🔍 Commanders not expected to be punished for tampering. The Washington Commanders have been in the news plenty of times over the last few weeks due to the highly anticipated sale of the organization. However, the Commanders have recently made headlines due to tampering allegations surrounding former NFL star Andrew Luck, who retired from the NFL in 2019 at the age of 29. Washington supposedly contacted Luck regarding his retirement status, but there was not enough evidence for the team to be punished.

⭐️ Oregon gets a five-star recruit. The Oregon Ducks landed one of the more talented recruits in the 2024 class this past weekend, with quarterback Michael Van Buren announcing his commitment to the team. Van Buren picked the Ducks over Penn State and Maryland and is the No.18 ranked recruit in his graduating class. Oregon currently has Bo NIx as its signal caller, but the Ducks have found a potential replacement for him after he graduates following the 2023 season.

Today’s trivia requires you to dig into multiple pockets of your brain, testing your knowledge of recent events as well as those that happened decades ago.

See how many of the below questions you can get correct. Answers are provided at the end of the newsletter.

1. Wilt Chamberlain is known for being a star on the basketball court, eventually leading to hime being inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame. However, Wilt Chamberlain was more than just a basketball player. In fact, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of another sport. What other Hall of Fame was Chamberlain inducted into?

2. The NFL is a brutal league to play in, and there is a reason why many people refer to it as the “Not For Long” league. One position in particular is where that nickname comes from, with the average career length of a player is only 2.57 years. What position is that?

3. The 2000 NFL Draft was one that produced a ton of stars, including Tom Brady, Brian Urlacher, Sebastian Janikowski, and Lavar Arrington. What is the correct order in which those players were drafted?

Our referral program is currently being migrated over from our old provider. You will eventually see your referral count here along with your unique code.

1. International Volleyball Association Hall of Fame

2. Running back

3. Lavar Arrington (2nd), Brian Urlacher (9th), Sebastian Janikowski (17th), Tom Brady (1999)