Thursday in sports saw a few teams advance to their next rounds while others lived to see a Game 7. The stakes are the same for Friday night, with postseason action continuing to dominate the headlines and the betting handle.
Celtics in must-win game on the road – After a fourth-quarter collapse saw Milwaukee steal Game 5, the Celtics’ season hangs in the balance tonight on the road. Boston won the last meeting on this court, led by Al Horford’s huge night. Boston made plenty of mistakes in Game 5, errors we expect a remedy to tonight. We’ll be going to the Celtics, opting for their moneyline at +105.
Expect the Warriors to bounce back – Golden State was dominated in Game 5, losing by 39 in Memphis. It was a shocking defeat, particularly when you consider that Ja Morant is out for the rest of the series. Our take is that it was just one game. We expect the Warriors to handle business back at home. The spread is a bit rich for our blood, so instead we’ll look to Steph Curry to have a big game and close this thing out. We like Curry to go over his points prop at 27.5.
Two Stanley Cup favorites can finish their Round 1 job tonight – After a brief scare, Florida and Calgary have both taken control of their series, winning two straight games and each leading 3-2. We like the far superior teams to finish up their work tonight and get to Round 2. We’ll be parlaying the Panthers and Flames to win, which comes in at +152.
In Other News …
Schedule set for the 2022 NFL season – The full schedule for this upcoming NFL season is now finalized, and the headlining game to start the year is the defending champion Rams hosting the Buffalo Bills. Is it too early to think about betting Week 1? Probably, but we still could. We like the Bills to play spoiler and take the win to start the season at -110.
NASCAR AdventHealth 400 set for this weekend – The NASCAR season is alive and well, with the next event kicking off at the Kansas Speedway. We’re liking the value on Kyle Busch to win this event, considering he won on this very track last season. His current +750 odds are the second-highest in the field and a bet worth making.
St. Louis advances to a second-round matchup against Colorado – The lone series set for Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs is officially the Blues vs. Avalanche, with St. Louis handling Minnesota by winning three straight games in dominating fashion. While St. Louis has seen both strong goaltending and explosive offense, it’s going to be hard to keep pace with this Colorado team. After a brief injury scare, it appears Colorado goaltender Darcy Kuemper is good to go moving forward. The Avalanche are absurd -380 favorites to advance. We still think the best bet is on them to win the West at -115.