This will be Bruins' goaltender Rask's second game back, and it appears he took up right where he left off all those months ago.  That was against a very depleted Flyers team.  Tonight, against the 6th rated Hurricanes' offense will be the real test.  'Canes goalie Andersen looked sharp last game but that was against the low-scoring Canucks.  He and the Hurricanes have been giving up more goals than usual lately, while scoring 4 or more.  The Bruins have won 5 in a row, averaging almost five goals-for a game in that time.  The total is set at 5.5, reflecting the reputations of two good goaltenders, and two solid defenses, however the reality has been and still is high-scoring games since the break.  Take the Hurricanes and Bruins to go over the total.

I was “spot on” calling for the Knicks’ game to go Under yesterday. They scored just 87 points in a loss to the Hornets, here at home. They only gave up 97. As I wrote in the analysis, many of the Knicks recent contests have been low-scoring affairs. In the last 12 games, they’ve held the opponent under 100 points. Five of those 12 games have seen them fail to get to 100 themselves.

But a matchup against Minnesota on Tuesday should change all of that. The Timberwolves are one of the higher scoring teams in the NBA. They are putting up 110.1 points per contest and that number grows to 114.1 on the road. Over the last five games, the T’wolves have averaged 125.6 points.

Minny blew out Golden State Sunday to move within a game of .500. But don’t read that much into them holding the Warriors to just 99 points. Neither Steph Curry or Draymond Green played in that game. 

The Knicks are now right at .500 after Monday’s loss. 

When these teams met right before the New Year, it was a 96-88 Knicks victory. But that game saw both sides shoot very poorly, especially at the free throw line where they combined to miss 17 of 36 attempts. I look for the rematch to be a lot higher scoring, so take the OVER

Loyola Chicago should be a familiar name to those who follow the NCAA Tournament. The Ramblers have made two deep Tourney runs in the last four years, one of them all the way to the Final Four (in 2018). Currently on a nine-game win streak, they are back in the Top 25 as of yesterday (ranked #22). 

Expect an easy win on Tuesday. Evansville is a bad team with a 4-11 record. The Purple Aces hadn’t played in almost a month when it was time for the Missouri Valley Conference portion of the schedule to go into full effect. They’ve lost all three games in January, two by 22 or more.

Loyola is clearly the best Missouri Valley team this year, although they’ve had some close calls. Two of their four league wins have required overtime. But this one is looking like the easiest matchup yet. 

Saturday saw Loyola hold Indiana State to 56 points. Evansville is only averaging 60.5 points this season. So it should be another solid effort at the defensive end from the favorite here.

The past two years have seen Loyola win all four head to head meetings. Three of the wins have been by double digits. Lay the points with LOYOLA CHICAGO

Akron, who is one of the top teams in the MAC, has hit a recent snag. They’ve lost two of three and are just 9-5 on the year. But tonight they host a Western Michigan team that is on a six-game losing streak. Expect this to be an easy cover by the home team.

The Zips lost 67-55 at rival Kent State on Friday. In addition to falling victim to a career night from Kent State’s Sincere Carry, the Zips were terrible at shooting from long range. They made only 4 of 24 three point attempts. 

But for the year, they’ve shot well from distance. At home they are making 37.4% of three-point attempts and that’s a big reason why they are putting up 82.4 points per game at the James A. Rhodes Arena. With Western Michigan giving up 86.1 points per game on the road this year, tonight should be an excellent showing at the offensive end from Akron.

WMU has scored more than 64 points only once during its six-game losing streak. They never seem to do well in games where the total is 130 to 139.5. They are 5-17 ATS in such games the last three seasons, 0-6 when on the road.

This is a game Akron should win by 20 or more points. Western Michigan is getting outscored by 21.1 points per game on the road. Lay the points with AKRON