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I think Washington can be feisty today. Even if Beal doesn’t play, and I think he will, the Clippers had a hard time fending off Porzingis and Kuzma and other Washington scorers in their previous contest a week ago. Powell and Zubac are OUT for the Clippers– that’s a good thing for WAS, and Paul George might sit out this one, too. Kawhi isn’t quite comfortable enough to take on the full scoring load for his squad just yet. Washington keeps it close either way.

I just think the Cavs are a really bad matchup for Dallas. And now the Mavericks are without Kleber, which is low-key a huge miss for them since he plays such a key role in spacing on their offense and defense. The bigs of Cleveland are too much for Dallas and D. Mitchell is playing at a very high level with his supporting cast.

These two offenses just match up really well against each other, and lately the Suns’ defense has been absolute garbage. New Orleans wants to beat the shit out of Phoenix every time and the Suns are seeking revenge after that controversial Zion dunk to finish the Pels’ last win. Animosity, fast pace, explosive scoring on both sides – if this was a playoff game I’d consider an under but, it’s not. The high totals continue in this series – I have it at 235.

Both Strickland and Cannonier are seasoned tough guys and deservingly this is a very evenly matched battle. Strickland’s style is just a little too passive for me and Cannonier represents more explosive KO ability, the kind that’s caught Strickland before. Lately Jared’s only losses are to the most elite (aka Adesanya) but he’s more ready and more dangerous than Strickland, from my perspective.

Ismagulov is a very smart fighter who picks apart his opponents and wins via decision over and over again. He’s only lost 1 bout because of that style and I think he out-classes Tsarukyan in this one, too.