Each day, one of our experts will offer up a best bet (or two or three) that mobile sportsbooks are offering. It might be a traditional spread bet, a player prop or one of the various odds boosts that books offer.
Here are our best bets for Thursday, Jan. 5:
TOP PLAY
The play: NCAA men’s basketball, Purdue money line over Ohio State
The odds/bet: +104
The book: FanDuel Sportsbook
Time/TV: 7 p.m. (FS1)
Our take: Either sports writers who cover college basketball on a regular basis have no idea what they’re doing, or the absolute wrong team is favored in this one.
No. 1 Purdue has been anything but great as of late, but the linesmakers clearly have overreacted to their loss to Rutgers on Monday night. Meanwhile, No. 24 Ohio State did beat Rutgers by one point a month ago, but other than that has no impressive victory.
The Boilermakers have defeated West Virginia by 12, Gonzaga by 18 and Duke by 19 – a Duke team that defeated the Buckeyes by nine points on Nov. 30.
Overall, Purdue has a terrible record in the series at 14-28, but they have won seven of the past 10, including by three points in January 2022.
NBA ELITE WITH ATTITUDE
The play: NBA, Celtics -3 over Mavericks
The odds/bet: -110
The book: FanDuel Sportsbook
Time/TV: 7:30 p.m. (TNT)
Our take: Boston is coming off an absolutely embarrassing 150-117 loss at Oklahoma City on Tuesday, which marked the third straight time the Celtics failed to cover. They haven’t gone four straight games without covering all season, and there’s no reason to think that will change here.
Although the Mavericks are on a seven-game winning streak, two of those wins have come against lowly Houston, another was at San Antonio and two others were at home vs. the Knicks and Lakers.
Sure, Luka Doncic is playing out of his mind, but I am still going to take the ticked-off and focused C’s.
HOW WE’VE FARED
NBA: Pelicans -7 over Rockets (WON)
NBA player prop: Trey Murphy to score more than 15.5 points (LOST)
Wednesday’s record: 1-1
Total for the week: 4-2
Total for January: 4-4
Total for 2023: 4-4
NOTE: If a line or odds are minus, it considers the juice one must lay to place the bet. Ex: Team A is -160 on the money line, one would have to bet $160 to win $100 (or $16 to win $10). OR Team B is a 5-point favorite at -110, one would have to bet $110 to win $100 (or $11 to win $10.)
Conversely, on positive lines, if Team C is +140 on the money line, a $100 would bring in $140 (or $10 to win $14).
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