PLL Championship Series: Monday’s Thoughts
Breaking down the only game Monday, Tuesday/Wednesday overview
The PLL continues its series, as the Archers and the Atlas squared off in an awesome Monday night game. Bad weather canceled the Chaos vs Redwoods, which has been pushed back to Wednesday at 11. Hey, that means more lacrosse!
We’ll give a more in depth breakdown of the lone Monday game, then dive into Tuesday’s games, as well as the rescheduled Wednesday game. I will also be giving times for these games so you can experience them for yourselves!
Archers vs Atlas: Archers Win 11–10
What a game!
The #1 and #2 overall draft picks battled it out in Utah, and both were absolutely lights out. Grant Ament was a huge factor to the Archers offense. He had three goals and one assist in his PLL debut. Their balanced attack on offense was a lot of fun to watch. If they can reduce their turnovers, this offense can really get cooking.
Nothing against the Atlas though. They had all the chance in the world to win this game. Trevor Baptiste dominated the face-offs for the Atlas. Rookie Bryan Costabile showed his talent on both ends of the field. The rookie played a huge role on defense shutting down the Archers best midfielder in Tom Schreiber, and even going coast-to-coast to score. These two rookies are gonna be a lot of fun to watch in the future.
The Archers biggest weakness is face-offs. Baptiste is great, but even the best lose sometimes. That will be an area they have to also address: they could try locking down the wings with double poles or sending one guy down to the defensive side immediately. Their next opponent, the Waterdogs, had a solid showing at face off.
The Atlas have a tough Thursday night matchup against the Whipsnakes next. Considering both their games have been within one goal, this team is by no means out of this series.
No Stock Up, Stock Down this article. We’ll do this bi-weekly until it reaches playoffs. Now, onto some betting odds! (I GOT ONE RIGHT!)
Chrome Vs Redwoods: Tuesday @9:30 ET. O/U 25.5. Chrome is at +115, Redwoods at -139
Sam’s Pick: Redwoods, Under 25.5
The Redwoods will be more refreshed after missing Monday’s game. They dominated the Chrome in 2019, beating them both times they played. Unders have continued to hit everytime. This would be a safe bet and a pretty confident one. This Redwoods defense will keep guys like Matt Gaudet from talking too much trash. Conner Farrell will have a nice face off matchup versus rookie Peyton Smith; however, Smith did respectable against the Whipsnakes.
Archers Vs Waterdogs: Tuesday @7:00 ET. O/U 23.5. Archers are at -115, Waterdogs are at +100
Sam’s Pick: Archers, Over 23.5
When it comes to the Archers, I will live and die on the over.
The Waterdogs have shown real potential, but the Archers offense and defense are better equipped for them. I expect to be a higher scoring game than the other 4 (maybe someone will finally score over 13 goals!). So long as the Archers can avoid those turnovers. It just seems like the Archers have more firepower on their offense, but guys like Drew Snider and Kieran McArdle won’t go out without a fight!
This excerpt comes from Monday’s article
Redwoods vs Chaos: O/U 25.5. Redwoods at -160 and the Chaos at +180.
Sam’s Pick: Redwoods. Under 25.5
Image from Lacrosse Bucket
The under keeps hitting, so ride that under. This game is gonna be an ugly one: both these teams are coming off bad loses and will have some angry to let out. These teams had close games in 2019: Chaos won over the Redwoods 12–11 and 13–10 when they met last year. That being said, this Redwoods offense should be able to put the Chaos defense on their toes enough to squeeze out a win. Now that the Redwoods are playing this game later, they may have had enough time to work out their kinks against the Chrome as well.
