Win a Sony PSP! Play Drive to the Finals Now!

By Jon Loomer

Previous Expert Picks

May 28 - I'd like to say that I put a lot of thought into this pick, folks. Just not the case. It's a nice, easy pick.

No risks. No strategy. We play with the hand we've been dealt. Actually, I'm playing with the hand we've dealt ourselves. We've already used several of our aces, sometimes at improper times, and now we play out our four remaining cards.

Today's Expert Pick

Player: Tim Thomas, Phoenix Opponent: Dallas Mavericks Regular Season Averages Pts Reb Ast 10.3 4.5 0.7

EXPERT PICK ARTICLES May 27 -- Rasheed Wallace May 26 -- Devin Harris May 25 -- Richard Hamilton May 24 -- Raja Bell May 23 -- Tayshaun Prince Previous Expert Picks FANTASY BLOG ARCHIVE May 26 -- On Second Thought... May 24 -- Hands off the Keys May 23 -- End in Sight May 20 -- The Curse Continues May 18 -- Advantage: Non-Experts

Enough of that analogy.

The point of the matter is that we have the following players left to choose from in this series with at least a 10.0 PRA: Tim Thomas (23.6), Leandro "Barbaro" Barbosa (17.8), Jason Terry (25.8), Jerry Stackhouse (19.5), and Erick Dampier (11.6).

First things first: We're not picking Erick Dampier today. We may be forced to take him eventually, but only in that situation of force...iture. Not a word, but you get the point.

It essentially comes down to Tim Thomas or Jason Terry. We will still use Terry, and I'd prefer to stick with one remaining strategy in this series: Pick players on their home court.

Home court, home cookin', better performance. It might not be a huge difference, but we need to get whatever numbers we can at this point.

There may be some evidence to support this. Let's take a look at a comparison of these players between Home and Away games during the month of May:

Can Tim Thomas maintain his high level of play? Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images

Player	Home PRA	Away PRA
Jason Terry	29.0	21.8
Jerry Stackhouse	21.0	22.0
Tim Thomas	21.5	24.0
Leandro Barbosa	22.3	17.8

Ok, I admit. This means very little. It's a small sample and it takes from games in both the current and previous rounds, so opposition means something. But, this much is true: Terry played significantly better at home. Leandro "Barbaro" Barbosa played significantly better at home. Not so clear with Stackhouse and Thomas, with each playing a little better on the road.

Digging for some defense of my argument here. I'm going to make it work. So, it is clear that if there is an edge at home during the month of May, it is slight. But like I keep saying, we'll take any advantage we can get. And so, I am looking at "Barbaro" and Thomas. The man with the horse-like name had a horrendous Game 1, scoring three points with three rebounds and three assists -- ah, the trifecta! Thomas, on the other hand, scored 17 points with seven rebounds.

I have the evidence I need. Timmy T. is my man for today.