Familiar faces from Monday’s best picks return this Wednesday but with two new twists. A good pitching matchup makes the difference on the road, as well as special teams in the NHL.
An old faithful UNDER in the NBA rounds of my favorite bets of the day, which include all odds referenced from BetMGM:
MIAMI MARLINS VS ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
After sneaking away with the first two games of the series, the Diamondbacks go for three in a row tonight against the Marlins.
Arizona gave up four runs in the 7th inning in both of their first two games of the series, but held on to win 5-4 in both contests. The starting pitching continues to be excellent for the Diamondbacks, who got 11 shutout innings from Humberto Castellanos and Zac Gallen through the first two games.
Madison Bumgarner draws the start tonight for the Diamondbacks. He’s been efficient to start the season, with a 1.17 ERA and 15 hits through 23 innings pitched. Elieser Hernandez finishes off the series for the Marlins. Hernandez has a 5.75 ERA and 22 hits across four starts.
This is a more than favorable pitching matchup for the Diamondbacks. Getting Bumgarner against Miami’s No.5 starter in Hernandez is a recipe for success. A +135 moneyline is too good to pass up with Arizona starting games as good as they have. The Diamondbacks should sweep tonight off of a strong Bumgarner start.
PICK: ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS (+135)
MINNESOTA WILD VS ST. LOUIS BLUES
The St. Louis Blues got a jumpstart in Minnesota on Monday, leading wire-to-wire to take a 1-0 series lead in the first round of the NHL Playoffs. The 4-0 Game 1 win was St. Louis’ fourth win against Minnesota this year. The Blues swept the Wild in the regular season.
Special teams are the difference maker between two teams who matchup well across the rest of the board. St. Louis finished the regular season with the second best power play unit in the NHL (26.47 PP%) and a top five penalty killing unit. Minnesota on the other hand converted on power plays at a rate of 20.95 percent, only good for 17th in the league. Their penalty killing? Even worse at 26th in the league.
To make matters worse, Minnesota averages the third highest penalty minutes per game at 10.9. In Game 1, two of St. Louis’ four goals came on man-up situations.
Unless the Wild can cut back on the penalties, the Blues will run them out of the playoffs in record time. Take St. Louis on the favorable moneyline tonight.
PICK: ST. LOUIS BLUES (+105)
MIAMI HEAT VS PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
I mentioned in my favorite bets this past Monday that the UNDER was the way to go in Game 1 of the Miami-Philadelphia series. The UNDER hit again in a 106-92 Heat win and I like it once more tonight.
The UNDER is now 4-1 in Miami’s games against the 76ers this year, 6-0 in Heat playoff games and 5-2 in 76er playoff games. What else is there to say?
Along with landing 2nd and 4th in the playoffs for points allowed per game, both teams fall in the top four in opposing field goal percentage and top three in opposing three point percentage.
With Joel Embiid and Kyle Lowry still out, the UNDER is good to go again for Game 2 tonight. As with the Bucks UNDER yesterday, ride it until it fails.
PICK: UNDER 208.5 POINTS (-115)
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Wolveridge Langan 