This Week in Sports Betting A-Z 4/12/2018

by Ricky Dimon - 4/12/2018

A. Alex Ovechkin . Ovechkin finished as the NHL's leading goal-scorer in 2017-18 after scoring twice in the Capitals' 5-3 victory over New Jersey last Saturday. The 32-year-old, who lit the lamp on 49 occasions during the regular season (five more than Winnipeg's Patrick Laine), has now led the league in scoring seven times. Washington is a -135 home favorite over Columbus on Thursday, per BetOnline Sportsbook.

B. Bald eagle . Instead of flying to the pitchers mound as trained, a bald eagle landed on the shoulder of Mariners' pitcher James Paxton during the National Anthem prior to last Thursday's game against Minnesota. Paxton may have been nervous because he is Canadian so the eagle may have had nefarious motives, but he handled it like champ.

C. Cheating . Cheating? Dumb. Cheating on Khloe Kardashian? Dumber. Cheating on a pregnant Khloe? Dumbest. But that is what Cavaliers' center Tristan Thompson is alleged to have done.

D. Dillon Peters . The Marlins' Derek Jeter-led rebuilding process may include multiple 20-1 embarrassments. But perhaps no single pitcher will again give up two grand slams in the same game. During last Saturday's 20-1 laugher against the Phillies, Peters was victimized by slams off the bat of Maikel Franco in the first inning and Aaron Altherr in the third. Ouch.

E. Edelman, Julian . Edelman notified authorities when someone in his Instagram comments threatened to carry out a school shooting. The comment was traced to a 14-year-old boy in Michigan who admitted making the threats and was found with two rifles at his mother's house. Well done, Edelman.

F. Flyers . The Flyers snagged the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, holding off a late charge by the Panthers-who ended the regular season on a five-game winning streak. But perhaps Philadelphia should have been careful what it wished for. It promptly got humiliated by Pittsburgh 7-0 in Game 1 on Wednesday. Touchdown! The Penguins are +700 at Bovada Sportsbook to win the Stanley Cup.

G. Griffin III, Robert . The Ravens signed RG3 last week. Kind of like the way I manage most of my fantasy football, fantasy baseball, and fantasy basketball teams, this would have been a good move about 10 years ago.

H. Hardaway, Penny . Hardaway's first recruit at Memphis is none other than his son. Jayden Hardaway, a 6'5'' shooting guard, played for Penny at Memphis East High School before spending this past season at IMG Academy in Florida. Point guard Alex Lomax, also a Memphis East product, switched from Wichita State to Memphis one day later.

I. Irving, Kyrie . The Celtics' underwhelming regular season was plagued in the form of bookend injuries sustained by Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving. Hayward, of course, suffered a dislocated ankle and fractured tibia in the opener against Cleveland. Now Irving will miss the entirety of the playoffs after undergoing left-knee surgery last week. Boston is +9500 at BookMaker to win the NBA title.

J. Jalen Brunson . Two national titles are enough for Brunson. Villanova's star point guard will forego his senior season and enter the 2018 NBA Draft. Brunson (18.9 ppg, 4.6 apg, 3.1 rpg in 2017-18) has already indicated that he will hire an agent.

K. Kevin Durant . As planned, Durant will opt out of his player option for 2018-19 and will restructure his contract. Of course, the Warriors have much more pressing issues on which to focus right now. Like, you know, they stink (by their standards).

L. Last playoff spot . It was win or go home in the regular-season finale between the Timberwolves and Nuggets on Wednesday, and extra time was needed to decide the Western Conference's last playoff spot. Minnesota survived in front of its home crowd with a 112-106 overtime victory. Its reward? A first-round date with Houston.

M. Manchester Derby . Man City is the dominant club in the English Premier League, but April so far has been an unmitigated disaster. The Sky Blues blew a chance to clinch the Premier League title at the expense of rival Manchester United and lost both legs of their Champions League quarterfinal against EPL foe Liverpool to get eliminated in unceremonious fashion from that competition.

N. Nadal, Rafael . Well, that should just about do it for the French Open-even though it is more than a month away. Playing for the first time since the Australian Open, Nadal returned to his beloved clay and annihilated world No. 4 Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 while leading Spain past Germany and into the Davis Cup semifinals.

O. Ohtani, Shohei . How good is this guy? As good as advertised, it appears. Ohtani is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 13 innings through two starts and is batting .364 with three home runs in six games at the plate. GT Bets has the Angels at +650 to win the American League Pennant.

P. Par 3 Contest . Tom Watson became the oldest winner, Jack Nicklaus' grandson made a hole in one, and Tony Finau dislocated his ankle-and popped it back into place by himself-while celebrating a hole in one of his own. The actual Masters had a lot to live up after the par-3 shenanigans…and it did.

Q. Quarterback . It's looking more and more like Cleveland is going with a quarterback at No. 1 overall. Will it be Sam Darnold or Josh Allen? Or does Penn State running back Saquon Barkley still have a chance?

R. Reed, Patrick . Sunday at the Masters was supposed to be a Reed vs. Rory McIlroy rematch of their epic 2016 Ryder Cup singles showdown. Instead, McIlroy fizzled in the final pairing and Captain American ended up being challenged by Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler. Reed held off both of them (Fowler by one and Spieth by two) for his first major title. MyBookie.ag has Spieth at +275 to win a major in 2018.

S. Steve Spurrier . Spurrier is back! Well, he is back if you consider being a head coach in the Alliance of American Football as "back"-and if this Alliance of American Football thing actually happens, as it is still in the proposal stage as of now. The Orlando franchise announced Spurrier as its first head coach last week.

T. Trotz, Barry . The Capitals' head coach is turning to Philipp Grubauer to be in goal for Game 1 against Columbus. Grubauer started 10 of the final 16 games during the regular season, compiling a 7-3-0 record with a 2.32 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage. No Washington goalie other than Braden Holtby has started a playoff game since 2011.

U. UEFA Champions League . Rome erased a 4-1 first-leg deficit by going on the road to stun Barcelona 3-0 on Wednesday and tie the aggregate at 4-4 while advancing to the UCL semifinals on the away goals tiebreaker. Are you not entertained?!?!

V. Vino Rosso . Vino Rosso won last week's Wood Memorial to establish himself as a serious contended at the upcoming Kentucky Derby. The result stood even though jockey John Velazquez was eventually fined $1500 for careless riding after bumping another horse during the final furlong. Justify is a +225 favorite at BetOnline Sportsbook to win the Kentucky Derby.

W. Woods, Tiger . If you don't hate Tiger, you probably wanted him to win the Masters. If you hate Tiger, you probably wanted him to get hurt and/or miss the cut. He did neither. A solid but unspectacular week saw Tiger finish T32 at 1-over.

X. Denotes clinched playoff berth . The Avalanche find themselves in the playoffs for the first time in four years and for just the second time in eight years. The final spot in the Western Conference came down to a head-to-head showdown with St. Louis last Saturday, and Colorado cruised 5-2. As for the Blues, that setback ended their streak of postseason appearances at six. "It doesn't really feel like our season's done right now," defenseman Joel Edmundson said afterward. "It's definitely a shock." 5Dimes Sportsbook has the Avalanche as +250 underdogs at Nashville in Game 1 on Thursday.

Y. Yankees . The benches cleared between the Yankees and Red Sox on Wednesday. New York, however, did not have one of its biggest guys for the fight. C.C. Sabathia has made an early-season trip to the 10-day disabled list after leaving last Friday's start against Baltimore with a hip injury. The 37-year-old southpaw is 0-0 with a 4.00 ERA over nine innings in two starts so far this season. New York (Gray) is a -107 favorite at Boston (Porcello) on Thursday, as indicated by BookMaker.

Z. Zimmermann, Jordan . Working against just his second batter of the game on Wednesday, the Tigers' right-hander took a line drive to the face off the bat of Cleveland's Jason Kipnis. Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire called it "terrifying" and Zimmermann left for x-rays, but he appears to be okay. The 31-year-old eventually posted the following on Twitter: "Thanks for all the love everyone. All good! See ya in five days #dodgedabullet #notreally".

Start:	November 23, 2024 @ 2:30 PM
Expert:	Tony George
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