The Warriors and Clippers stood alone on Friday night in the NBA playoffs in a Game 6 affair in Los Angeles. In Toronto, all eyes were glued to the acclaimed Blue Jay debut of Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. while Raptor fans await today’s second round tip-off versus the Sixers. Here’s a sports betting recap from yesterday and a look ahead to today’s action.
Durant Breaks the Glass Slipper
In maybe the most shocking development in the NBA playoffs thus far, the Los Angeles Clippers were somehow able to get to Game 6 against the Warriors on their home court. There would be no happy ending for Cinderella in this series — Kevin Durant is not much for fairy tales.
Durant’s 50 points represented a career high for a playoff game. His 38 first half points tied for the second-most in a NBA playoff game.
“That was one of the great performances I’ve ever seen in my life,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said. Durant easily smashed his 29.5-point O/U on FanDuel Sportsbook, making it back-to-back covers on his points props.
As for the Warriors, the 129-110 victory covered the spread by 8.5 points. The game total went over implied 232 total. Up next for the Warriors? The Houston Rockets already made the trip to the Bay Area in anticipation of a Warriors victory and an early start time for Game 1 on Sunday.
Good thinking. The Warriors will be 6.5-point home favorites when the series tips off tomorrow at 3:30 PM EST. At the time of this writing, the Dubs are -310 to win the series with the Rockets offering a +235 price tag.
Rookies Welcomed to the Show
FanDuel Sportsbook offered a boosted +490 player prop for a Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. home run. DraftKings Sportsbook offered +400. DraftKings also tempted bettors with a +4000 two-homer prop and +1700 for those willing to speculate on a home run in his first at-bat. Well…
Guerrero excited the Toronto fans with his first career hit — a double to right field prior to Brandon Drury’s walk-off home run versus the Oakland Athletics. While all of those tickets on Vlad were for naught — the Blue Jays cashed -130 ML tickets for more conservative bettors with the 4-2 victory.
Meanwhile in Washington, another debuting rookie made an early impression to his fanbase.
Carter Kieboom one-upped his American League rookie counterpart with a home run in the bottom of the 8th inning against the Padres to tie the game 3-3. Unfortunately, Hunter Renfroe almost immediately stripped Washington fans of their glory with a home run of his own in the top of the 9th to seal a 4-3 victory over the Nats.
The Padres cashed +189 on the ML and Renfroe is +350 to repeat his home run heroics today on FanDuel. On Saturday the Nationals are -178 to win with Stephen Strasburg toeing the rubber and the Pads +148 with Eric Lauer on the bump.
Second Round Series Open in NHL
Last night, the Carolina Hurricanes opened up their second series with a road victory over the -143 ML-favored New York Islanders. Carolina needed overtime to pull off the upset and help bettors cash +125 ML tickets.
The overtime game was the first in Carolina Hurricanes history to get to overtime scoreless. Jordan Staal needed 4:04 to break the tie and give the Hurricanes a 1-0 series lead. Both goalies had 31 saves contest.
Later in the evening, the San Jose Sharks opened up their second-round series at home versus the Colorado Avalanche. A -130 ML favorite, the Sharks almost immediately gave up a Gabriel Bourque goal.
Down 2-1 in the second period, the Sharks found an equalizer from Joe Thornton and then put two more goals on the board in the period to go up 5-2 — ultimately the final score of the game. The high-scoring second period fueled the game going over the 6-goal implied total by 1.
The two teams will meet again in San Jose on Sunday evening with the Sharks up 1-0 in the series and -260 to win the series.
NBA Saturday Preview
During the regular season, the Philadelphia 76ers’ lone victory versus the Toronto Raptors came when Kawhi Leonard sat out. Then again, the teams have yet to play in their current incarnations — the Raptors acquiring Marc Gasol and the Sixers acquiring Tobias Harris since the February 5th meeting.
Kawhi will assuredly be the 76ers’ biggest concern throughout the series with Ben Simmons likely getting the first crack at slowing down the star forward. Leonard is averaging 27.6 PPG on 55.6% shooting throughout the playoffs.
The Raptors will start the series at home and as such are 6.5-point favorites on FanDuel Sportsbook at the time of this writing. The Raptors are also -270 to win the playoff series — with the youthful Sixers presenting a +205 price to prospective bettors.
The O/U for Game 1 is set at 222.5 after some poor poor defensive displays against the Nets in the opening round. Meanwhile the Raptors held the Magic below 100 points in each of their four consecutive victories.
The Sixers will be without Mike Scott today and the Raptors will be without OG Anunoby.
In the West, two teams meet again in Denver for all the marbles.
DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge combined for 51 points when the Spurs forced a Game 7 on Thursday night, 120-103. DeRozan is averaging 22.5 PPG throughout the series as the Spurs relied on outside shooting in Game 6 to overcome getting beat up in the paint by the Nuggets. The Spurs went 10 for 24 from three and that includes and 0 for 7 from Patty Mills. Less is more Patty…
Despite the disappointing loss, the Nuggets are 6-point favorites on FanDuel Sportsbook to close out the series and move on to the next round. Nikola Jokic was extremely impressive in the Game 6 loss — coming one assist shy of a triple-double with 43 points, 12 rebounds, and 9 assists. The young star will play in the first Game 7 of his career — as is the case with many of the Nuggets — while the Spurs are built with more playoff experience.
The team remaining when the dust settles will square off with the awaiting Portland Trail Blazers — fresh off of their buzzer-beating victory of the Oklahoma City in the first round.
Prop Shop: Jimmy Butler O/U 18.5 Points
FanDuel Sportsbook offers an 18.5-point O/U for Jimmy Butler in Game 1 of the second round when the Sixers play at Toronto.
Butler is averaging 15.8 PPG against a defensively weaker Nets team — including a 36 point outlier in the Game 1 loss. As mentioned above, the Raptors have not allowed 100 points in their last four games. Give me the under on Butler at 18.5 points.
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