More playoff action to start the weekend! After a break last night, the NBA returns, as the NHL and MLB keep cooking. I scoured through the data and picked out my favorite bets for this Friday. A pair of playoff favorites look to go up 3-0, while the strikeout king is active in Cleveland.
Here are my best picks for tonight, with all odds referenced from BetMGM:
DALLAS MAVERICKS VS PHOENIX SUNS
Including their first two playoff games, the Suns continue to dominate the Mavericks. Phoenix won all five games against the Mavericks this season, including a matchup in Dallas. The Suns head to the Lone Star State once again to face the Mavs tonight.
Their games haven’t been particularly close. The Suns keep the Mavericks at arm’s length and have yet to win a game by less than seven.
Dallas has no answer for the Western Conference’s top seed. The Mavs shot better from beyond the arc and boasted a higher effective field goal percentage than their regular season totals in Games 1 and 2. Luka Doncic is shooting efficiently, over 50 percent from the field and averaging 40 points a game. Everything is going well for the Mavericks and they still got outscored by 27 across two games.
A -1.5 spread with underdog odds for one of the best teams against the spread in basketball? Sign me up. Take the Suns to cover for the third game in a row.
PICK: PHOENIX SUNS -1.5 (+100)
BOSTON BRUINS VS CAROLINA HURRICANES
Up 2-0 in the series heading to Boston, the Hurricanes sit firmly in the driver’s seat. Pyotr Kochetkov relieving Antti Raanta in Game 2 barely affected Carolina, who outscored Boston 10-3 in their first two games.
Carolina dominating Boston is nothing new. This season, the Hurricanes swept the Bruins, 3-0. Two of their wins came in Boston, with the Hurricanes putting up 13 goals to the Bruins’ one.
The matchup is a bad one for Boston. The Bruins were one of the worst precision shooting teams in the regular season, ranking second to last in 5-on-5 shooting percentage (6.8%) and third to last in total shooting percentage (8.5). Carolina is excellent at limiting chances, ranking fourth in the NHL in scoring chances allowed while also sporting top four expected and actual goals against numbers.
Boston is shooting even worse this series, converting on only 4.1 percent of their shots. After trouncing them in the first two games, Carolina is an underdog to win tonight. I’ll take the defensive stalwart on a favorable line, especially when the Hurricanes have scored on nearly 17 percent of their shots this series.
PICK: CAROLINA HURRICANES (+110)
CLEVELAND GUARDIANS VS TORONTO BLUE JAYS
The Blue Jays continue their series against the Guardians today following a tightly contested 6-5 loss yesterday.
Kevin Gausman takes the mound for Toronto tonight. Gausman looks like one of the offseason’s best signings and worth every cent of his massive contract. In his five starts this season, Gausman sports a 2.27 ERA, leads the MLB in FIP (0.51) and struck out a whopping 41 batters.
Gausman struck out eight or more in four of his five starts. He constantly puts pitches over the plate, with no walks yet this season. He’s the only starting pitcher with no walks on the year.
The Blue Jays are starting to let Gausman go deeper in games. In his last three starts, he’s pitched eight, six and seven whole innings. With more batters to face and a strikeout line at 6.5, the OVER is almost too obvious.
PICK: KEVIN GAUSMAN OVER 6.5 STRIKEOUTS (+105)
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Wolveridge Langan 