I’m playing on the Atlanta Hawks as a 10*

The Hawks escaped a tough series with the Wizards, thanks to some last-second heroics as well as some luck, with Washington having a Paul Pierce buzzer beater called back in Game 6. And those close calls have oddsmakers showing the Eastern Conference’s top seed little respect in this conference finals opener against Cleveland. Atlanta matches up better with the Cavs, being able to throw some multiple athletic forwards at LeBron James as well as possessing a much deeper frontcourt. Cleveland lucked out against Chicago in Round 2 with the Bulls’ big men playing banged up. The Hawks have All-Stars Al Horford and Paul Milsap at forward along with budding star DeMarre Carroll. The Cavaliers don’t have much muscle or talent down low, since Kevin Love was lost for the postseason, and we expect the Hawks to flex its frontcourt prowess and pick up an impressive win in Game 1 of this Eastern Conference final Wednesday.

I’m playing on Atlanta as a 10* Wednesday.

I’m playing on the Over in Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers as a 9*.

Hockey bettors saw New York impose its defensive-minded brand of hockey in Game 1 on the Eastern Conference final. But, we expect the Lightning to find their stride and turn up the tempo in Game 2 Monday. Tampa Bay was limited to single-digit shots in the first and third periods of Saturday’s series opener and plenty of those weren’t quality attempts to begin with. The NHL’s highest-scoring squad, which netted 3.2 goals a night in the regular season, will increase those chances and make sure they count, not wanting to head home down 0-2 in the series. For New York, it missed out on plenty of good scoring chances in Game 1 as well. A couple shots were saved by the post, and that could have led to a much higher-scoring contests in the opener. We don’t see the Rangers passing on those easy opportunities again in this one. New York actually outshot the Lightning and can return fire with a deep offensive corps.

I’m playing on the Over in Tampa Bay at N.Y. Rangers as a 9* Monday.

I’m playing on the Under in Los Angeles Clippers at Houston Rockets as a 10*.

These teams have trumped the total in all six of their showdowns in this Western Conference semifinal series but Game 7 will be a tightly-contested game with neither team wanting to make mistakes. Los Angeles is still smarting from a blown 19-point lead in the second half of Game 6, and will be turning up the defensive intensity for this do-or-die game. Houston did damage on the boards in Game 6 and picked up plenty of second-chance points. Those putbacks will be tougher to come by with Doc Rivers preaching toughness on the defensive boards. For the Rockets, they’ve relied on those inside points with star James Harden going cold from outside. Harden is just 3 for 14 from beyond the arc the last two games while Houston, as a team, is shooting 22 for 61 in those games. The Rockets have done a good job protecting against the 3-pointer, allowing L.A. to hit just 30.2 percent of its shots from distance the last three games. This will be a closing-contested battle with neither team looking to give an inch.

I’m playing on the Under in L.A. Clippers at Houston as a 10* Sunday.

ATLANTA at WASHINGTON