Sports Equinox SZN continues with a full day's worth of action this Sunday.
In honor of the stars aligning, our team is highlighting one of their top picks in each of the major sports in play this Sunday, from an early-morning Premier League match through a late-night NBA game.
Sunday Sports Equinox Picks
Click to expand picks for earlier events
Wolves vs. Leicester City Pick ⚽
Nick Hennion: Maybe, just maybe, Leicester City is beginning to turn a corner.
In the Foxes’ last four fixtures, manager Brendan Rodgers’ side has a +2.63 xGOT differential, per fotmob.com. In two meetings with Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest — slightly worse than Wolves, but the closest comparisons — the Foxes have generated 4.14 xGOT and three big scoring chances.
Now, Leicester gets to go up against a Wolves side that struggles to score and has played horribly at home. Entering this fixture, Wolves have a -1 home goal differential against a -4.61 home xGOT differential.
Plus, Leicester completely bossed Wolves around last season. Despite claiming all three points on just one occasion, Leicester compiled a +3.11 xGOT differential while limiting the Wolves attack to only 0.55 total xGOT across both meetings.
Bet Leicester so long as the visitors are available at +180 or better.
ATP Antwerp Pick 🎾
Jonathan Reid: After having reached different finals last week, Auger Aliassime and Korda will play on back-to-back Sundays, this time squaring off with one another.
Both of these young guns are tall, athletic and able to rip big groundstrokes from the baseline — but it's the serve that really separates these two. Auger Aliassime's serve is levels ahead of his counterpart at this point, something Korda admitted he must work on this week.
That gives Auger Aliassime the clear edge for me in the battle of the 22-year-olds.
The fact that one of the big reasons he's found so much success over the past few weeks comes down to his improved return game gives me confidence that he'll be able to generate a few break-point opportunities along the way in this match.
Kraken vs. Blackhawks 🏒
Nicholas Martin: With a high degree of confidence, I say this: The Kraken will be significantly better moving forward than the Blackhawks, and have played considerably better than a 2-2-2 record suggests.
Seattle has considerably better depth than Chicago at essentially every position, and I believe we should see the Kraken generate far more quality chances than the Blackhawks. And if the Kraken receive another reasonable goaltending performance — which has been very rare in the franchise's history — they should win handily.
If the Kraken don't get a strong goaltending performance, they will still have a great chance to best a poor Blackhawks team with shaky goaltending.
I see value backing the Kraken down to -140.
Chiefs vs. 49ers Pick 🏈
Sean Koerner: The 49ers are welcoming back Trent Williams, Nick Bosa and Jimmie Ward, which should give their offense and defense a massive boost.
They also just traded for Christian McCaffrey, who will be making his team debut. He likely won’t see much playing time, but he should still give the offense a lift, which will be critical against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
I’m projecting the 49ers as 1.5-point favorites here and like getting them at +1 or better.
Yankees vs. Astros Game 4 Pick ⚾
Jim Turvey: I love getting plus-money on the over 3.5 for the first five innings at +100 (BetMGM).
Lance McCullers is one of the most unique pitchers in baseball, throwing either a slider or curveball on more than half of his pitches. And the Yankees love sliders and curves. They were second in all of baseball against sliders this season and fourth against curves. Their two righty mashers particularly love those two pitches: Aaron Judge posted an insane .440 xwOBA against right-handed sliders and curves, while Giancarlo Stanton posted a .352 xwOBA, which is well above league average.
Just as the Yankees are a good fit for McCullers, the Astros are a pretty good fit against Nestor Cortes.
Cortes has already made two starts this postseason with only three earned runs over 10 innings. But if we dig a little deeper, he’s been tap-dancing on landmines with just five strikeouts and four walks in those 10 innings.
Of course, that’s a tiny sample size, but the Astros were also the second-best team against lefties this season. Both lineups should handle the opposing starter well.
Suns vs. Clippers Pick 🏀
Chris Baker: I have to lean toward the Clippers despite the fact they're on a back-to-back.
The Clippers legitimately have six or seven guys who can put up 20 points on any given night, which is what makes them so scary. We saw Paul George carry the load on Saturday night, but it could be any of Kawhi Leonard, John Wall, Marcus Morris, Reggie Jackson, Norman Powell or even Luke Kennard on Sunday night.
The Suns, meanwhile, don't have that same depth of talent right now — if Devin Booker and Chris Paul don't play lights out, they have little chance. Whereas as if a few Clippers struggle, they have plenty of depth to rely on.
It is clear to me that the Clippers are prioritizing this game, too, given they rested Leonard and Wall on Saturday night. And this is not a team I want to fade at full strength. Back the Clippers to win their home opener on Sunday night.
