Thursday night embodies what Sports Equinox SZN is all about — and our sports betting experts have come prepared. Within the span of 45 minutes, we have picks on two live football games, plus for Game 5 of the World Series … as well as on the NBA and NHL.
Let's dive right in!
Thursday Sports Equinox Picks
App State vs. Coastal Carolina Pick 🏈
Dan Keegan: This is a massive game in the Sun Belt East — arguably the division’s Game of the Year. And if this critical matchup is going to live up to expectations, there will be points aplenty.
Any functional offense has put up pinball numbers against Coastal Carolina — even Marshall’s weak offense gained 407 total yards on the Chants despite sputtering in the red zone.
Appalachian State’s offense is too versatile, too veteran and too productive to sputter out. It will make frequent trips to the end zone.
Coastal will need to score to keep up — and between quarterback Grayson McCall, head coach Jamey Chadwell’s play designs, and App’s own forgiving defense — it will find ways to do so.
Enjoy the points in what could be the most entertaining sporting event of the night.
Nuggets vs. Thunder Pick 🏀
Chris Baker: I don’t like the way the Thunder match up with Nikola Jokic down low.
Jokic is the obvious focal point of the offense, and if you can’t match up with him one-on-one, then he will force help/double teams and pick you apart with his passing ability. The Thunder definitely cannot matchup with him, as they are currently starting 6-foot-8 Jeremiah Robinson-Earl at the center spot.
Jokic had 19 points and 13 assists on just 10 shot attempts the first time these teams matched up. It was clear he could score at will, but the Nuggets have made it a point of emphasis to try and get Jamal Murray going early in the season. Jokic is likely to play with more urgency on the road coming off an embarrassing loss to the Lakers on Sunday night.
That leads me to another edge the Nuggets have with their two-day rest advantage. The Thunder battled with the Magic on Tuesday while the Nuggets have had three days of rest and preparation for this matchup. Of course, there's always a chance the Nuggets come out flat and coast against a bad Thunder team, but just focusing on the talent disparity, I can’t justify this line being less than -8.
Trust the Nuggets to play to their potential on Thursday night.
Islanders vs. Blues Pick 🏒
Jonny Lazarus: The Islanders have been playing very strong hockey as of late and I find it very surprising to see them as underdogs in this contest. New York is a top-10 team in the league on both sides of the puck right now, while St. Louis has become the worst offensive team in the NHL.
There is no denying the fact that the Blues are a good enough team to get themselves out of a jam, but that is going to be very difficult to do against a team as solid as the Islanders. Ilya Sorokin gives the Islanders an advantage against almost every team, and with the struggles the Blues are having scoring, he should be able to shut them down relatively easy.
The Islanders should keep it rolling and steal two points on the road.
Astros vs. Phillies Pick ⚾
Sean Zerillo: You can read my in-depth breakdown of Game 5 here, but based on my numbers for Thursday night, I'm showing an edge on the total.
You can bet an Under 7.5 to -110 (projected 6.99) or look to bet a Live Under 9.5 or 9 if either starter allows early runs — both managers should be aggressive with relatively well-rested bullpens.
I don’t see value on either side of the F5 total (projected 3.69), though.
Texans vs. Eagles Pick 🏈
Sean Koerner: It’s always tricky when handicapping such a big mismatch. The Eagles should have no problem beating the Texans, but a spread as high as 14 points exposes bettors to a late-game backdoor cover. Plus, more than 80% of the action and money has been on the Eagles, so the books will be rooting for the underdog (check real-time betting data here).
The sharp play here would be on the under.
What I’m most confident in about this matchup is that the Texans will struggle to put up points. They may be able to move the ball on the ground — at least while the score is close — but once they fall behind and are forced into a pass-heavy game script, they will be playing into the strength of the Eagles defense.
On the flip side, the Texans’ inability to put up points will allow the Eagles offense to take their foot off the gas fairly early and simply run out the clock in what should be an easy win. The one foil to this gameflow would be if the Texans defense were to slow down the Eagles offense early on, keeping this game close. That game script would also be favorable to the under.
I’m projecting this closer to 43.5 and would bet it down to 45.
