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This Week in Sports Betting, A-Z


by - 4/26/2019

Tim Anderson Chicago White Sox

A. Anderson, Tim . Anderson went deep and then went into epic bat-flipping mode when the White Sox went up against Kansas City last week. Benches naturally cleared after Anderson got beaned during his next at-bat, and he was eventually suspended one game for directing the n-word at pitcher Brad Keller-who is white. The White Sox (Rodon) are -128 home favorites over Detroit (Norris) on Friday, per BetOnline Sportsbook.

B. Boston Celtics . It's not necessarily Nate McMillan's fault, but the Pacers' head coach is out in the first round for a seventh time in eight playoff appearances. The last-and only-time he advanced was when the Thunder were still the Seattle Supersonics (McMillan led them past Sacramento in 2004-05 before falling to San Antonio). McMillan was without star guard Victor Oladipo and had to face a formidable foe in Boston. The Celtics finished off a sweep with a 110-106 Game 4 win last Sunday.


C. Crawford, Terence . Crawford "defeated" Amir Khan in last week's WBO world welterweight title fight by technical knockout in the sixth round. It ended following an alleged accidental blow to Khan's nether region.

D. Damian Lillard . As if Lillard's Game 5 performance wasn't already good enough, he dialed up a 37-foot three-pointer as time expired to give Portland a 118-115 series-clinching win over Oklahoma City on Tuesday. That also gave Lillard 50 points on his 10th three.

E. Ejected . DeMar DeRozan got booted out of Game 4 between San Antonio and Denver when he disgustedly threw the ball in the direction of referee Scott Foster. Fortunately for DeRozan, he isn't out of the playoffs-not yet, at least. The Spurs bounced back from two straight losses to win Game 6 at home and force a decisive Game 7 on Saturday. Bovada Sportsbook has the Spurs as +5.5 road underdogs.

F. Flames . The Flames were hot throughout the entire regular season. Like many NHL favorites, however, they were ice cold in round one. Calgary, the Western Conference's top seed, lost to Colorado in five games.

G. Gruden, Jon . Did Gruden even need his scouts' help for the NFL Draft? Only time will tell, but the Raiders certainly made some interesting choices with their three first-round picks on Thursday night.

H. Hertl, Tomas . Hertl guaranteed that the Sharks would win Game 6 in Vegas and force a Game 7 at home. They did even more than that. San Jose won back-to-back overtime thrillers to take the series, including a controversial comeback from 3-0 down in the third period of Tuesday's decider en route to a 4-3 triumph. XBet.ag has the Sharks as -130 favorites to win their series against Colorado.

I. Incident . As if the Chiefs weren't already tired of dealing with off-the-field incidents, an audio recording of Tyreek Hill discussing his son's broken arm surfaced on Thursday. Hill is apparently responsible for the injury, and he has been indefinitely banned from team facilities. Uh oh!

J. Jacob deGrom . New York sports fans may have been sprinting for the loony bin when it was announced that deGrom needed an MRI on his elbow. They may remain at the funny farm, too…but because of the Giants' draft-day shenanigans-not because of deGrom. The Mets' ace reportedly does not have any major issues and he may even start on Friday.

K. Kyler Murray . Prince William reportedly cheating on Kate Middleton? Surprising. Murray going No. 1 overall? Not surprising. BookMaker has the over/under on Arizona's regular-season win total at 5.0.

L. Lombardi Trophy . Future Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski recently returned the trophy to his former team with a dent in it. What' shocking is that it made its way back in (mostly) one piece.

M. Monte-Carlo . Is Rafael Nadal still the King of Clay? Next month's French Open will likely tell us just that, but he suffered a surprising loss in last week's Monte-Carlo semifinals to Fabio Fognini. Nadal is currently competing in Barcelona, where he is an 11-time champion (just as he is in Monte-Carlo and at the French).

N. NFL schedule . If you thought the Giants taking Daniel Jones at No. 6 overall was dumb, well, the NFL's schedule-makes are a whole different level of stupid. Both Tampa Bay and Oakland will go six weeks without playing a true home game. After the Bucs host the Giants on Sept. 22, they do not play again in Tampa until Nov. 10. After the Raiders entertain Kansas City on Sept. 15, they do not play again in Oakland until Nov. 3. Both teams have a "home" game in London and a bye during those stretches. GT Bets has Tampa Bay as a -1 home favorite over San Francisco is Week 1.

O. Ovechkin, Alex . There will be a new Stanley Cup champion this season, as the Capitals got bounced out in the first round by Carolina after seven games. Ovechkin did his part, recording four goals and five assists during the series. Nonetheless, Washington blew Game 7 leads of 2-0 and 3-1 before falling in overtime on Wednesday. Carolina is a +120 road underdog at the Islanders in Game 1 on Friday, as indicated by MyBookie.ag.

P. Pan, C.T. Pan will be playing in the Masters next spring. The 27-year-old from Taiwan captured the first PGA Tour title of his career when he triumphed at last week's RBC Heritage. Pan fired a Sunday 67 and benefited from third-round leader Dustin Johnson's disastrous day (6-over 77 that sent him 27 spots down the leaderboard to 28th).

Q. Quarterfinals . The Eastern Conference first round was a predictable snooze-fest aside from some decent trash talk between Philadelphia and Brooklyn. But the conference quarterfinals-in both the East and the West-are set up to be epic. Golden State vs. Houston is a highly-anticipated showdown, but it is not yet a certainty. The Warriors are -10.5 road favorites in Game 6 against the Clippers on Friday, according to Bovada Sportsbook.

R. Russell Westbrook . The only thing shorter than Westbrook's press-conference responses to Oklahoman reporter Berry Tramel was his stay in the playoffs. Lillard's heroics sent Westbrook and the Thunder packing after five games. They have now lost in the first round in three consecutive seasons.

S. Steve Yzerman . Can Yzerman be the savior of the Red Wings as a general mananger, just as he was a player? He's going to try, bolting Tampa Bay following its playoff ouster to join his former team.

T. Tampa Bay Lightning . The Lightning were the best team in hockey by a country mile during the regular season. Nonetheless, they not only failed to win the Stanley Cup but also didn't even make it out of the first round, didn't win a single game, didn't take any game to overtime, and lost the last three by a combined 10 goals during their shocking sweep at the hands of Columbus. 5Dimes Sportsbook has the Blue Jackets as +130 underdogs at Boston in Game 2 on Saturday.

U. UEFA Champions League . Manchester City may be favored to secure another English Premier League title after beating Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 last weekend, but success in the Champions League will have to wait. Facing Tottenham in the quarterfinals, Man City "won" the second leg 4-3 at home last week but lost a 4-4 aggregate on the away-goals tiebreaker. City led 4-2 in the second match and 4-3 on aggregate before giving up what proved to be a decisive goal during the 73rd minute. BetOnline Sportsbook has FC Barcelona as a +150 favorite to win the Champions League.

V. Verlander, Justin . Verlander may be the luckiest guy in the world (for obvious reasons), but he's also good. The Astros' 36-year-old ace improved to 4-0 with a 2.61 ERA this season after tossing 8.0 innings of one-run baseball during Wednesday's win over Minnesota. Houston is a +190 favorite at MyBookie.ag to win the American League.

W. Woods, Tiger . Tiger enjoyed a recent Masters celebration at his restaurant in Jupiter, Fla. A video surfaced on Thursday and showed the 43-year-old with a visible limp. Oh, no! Injured again? Nope, probably just leg day.

X. Xander Bogaerts . The Red Sox have stunk so far (by their standards), but their 11-14 record is no fault of Bogaerts. He has hit safely in 21 of 25 games this season, including 10 of the past 11.

Y. Yankees . Despite a myriad of injuries, the Yankees are staying afloat at 14-11. Star outfielder Aaron Judge became the latest casualty when he suffered a strained left oblique in last Saturday's win over Kansas City. "It's tough," said Judge, who missed 45 games in 2018 with a wrist injury. "One of my goals was to not get back on [the IL]. It's especially tough at times like this when we have a lot of guys beat up…. There's no need to put a clock on it because that's what we did with the wrist last year. There's no need to go down that road again." YouWager.eu has the Yankees (Paxton) as -121 favorites at San Francisco (Bumgarner) on Friday.

Z. Zlatan Ibrahimovic . Zlatan actually went an entire match without scoring on Wednesday. He had scored in all five of the Galaxy's MLS matches this season (seven goals in total) prior to a 0-0 draw against Minnesota.

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