The Saskatchewan Rush visit the Las Vegas Desert Dogs in the lone Friday National Lacrosse League matchup of Week 3. I have two bets for this game, including a bet on the spread and a player prop. Let’s dive in to what I’m betting on Friday night.
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Las Vegas Desert Dogs vs. Saskatchewan Rush
| Saskatchewan Odds | -132 |
| Las Vegas Odds | +108 |
| Total | 22.5 |
| Time | Friday · 10 p.m. ET |
| TV | ESPN+ |
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook. When betting lacrosse, register with Action Network's FanDuel Sportsbook promo code today for a sign-up offer.
While the Desert Dogs enter this game with the better record, the Rush are rightly 1.5-point favorites. Despite an 0-2 start, Saskatchewan faced two 2023 playoff teams with very little roster turnover in their first two games. The Rush was even five minutes away from defeating the Rochester Knighthawks before a late two-goal run erased their lead and empty netter put the game out of reach. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Desert Dogs pulled out a close win last week forcing overtime with just seconds remaining before defeating Panther City in overtime.
While both teams could struggle to make the postseason, Saskatchewan has shown enough against their first two opponents to suggest they’ll win by margin on Friday night. The Rush offense underwent a massive overhaul this offseason, but have quickly dispelled any doubt, scoring 12 and 14 goals respectively in their first two games. The defense has struggled, yet has faced two of the deeper offenses in the NLL and should fare much better against Las Vegas. The key will be limiting second chances for the Las Vegas offense—something the Rush struggled to do against both Halifiax and Rochester.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas dropped their first game to an Albany team that appears to be better than their pre-season expectations, and beat a Panther City team that made the playoffs last season. Yet, I think the market is overvaluing their close loss and overtime win in comparison to the Rush’s two losses. Landon Kells ranks fifth in saves per 60 minutes, but has masked some of the Desert Dogs’ defensive issues.
Expect Saskatchewan to win by a comfortable margin and bet Rush -1.5 (+110 on FanDuel)
I’m also expecting a big performance by Robert Church, who’s tallied five goals in each of the Rush’s first two games. If you extend the sample size to last season, Church has recorded five or more points in 15 of his last 20 games—making his fair odds to surpass 4.5 points closer to -300. Furthermore, the advanced stats on LaxMetrics suggest Church has performed at a league best level, ranking third in MOPscore—LaxMetrics’ version of a Pro Football Focus score that considers five different advanced metrics.
Don’t fear the juice and bet Church to once again go over 4.5 points (-160 on bet365) on Friday night.
Picks: Saskatchewan Rush -1.5, Robert Church Over 4.5 Points
