Daily Sports Betting Preview 9/9/2020: MLB Betting, Celtics vs. Raptors, Nuggets vs. Clippers

• The New York Yankees have -143 odds to beat a Blue Jays team they’ve lost to twice in a row.
• The Boston Celtics are -3.5 favorites to win a potential closeout game vs. the Toronto Raptors.
• The Denver Nuggets are eight-point underdogs to the Los Angeles Clippers

LAS VEGAS - Today’s Daily Sports Betting Preview is a bit different from the others.

First, the Preview takes a look at some MLB betting, but then, instead of looking at two smaller sports, the Preview will focus on the NBA.

There are two playoff games happening Wednesday Night, and the Preview is here to break both of them down.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

MLB Betting

The New York Yankees have completed what amounts to an incredible slide in the standings.

The Yankees, who at one point led the AL East in terms of record, have found themselves at an even 21-21.

Arguably, this all started when they lost a series to the Tampa Bay Rays, but the root causes might be a little deeper.

The Yankees’ problems stem from two places: injuries and pitching. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton have been injured for much of the season, and the pitching staff has underperformed as well.

Today, the Yankees face off against the Toronto Blue Jays, for the third time in three days.

The Yankees have lost their last five outings, two of which were, of course, to the Blue Jays.

Despite this, the odds seem to favor the Yankees in this matchup today.

This could be a misestimation on the part of the sportsbooks, or the bettors who are wagering on this matchup.

There are a lot of trends working against the Yankees here. First and foremost, the Yankees are on a skid that sees them with two wins out of their last ten games.

More than that, the Yankees are 1-9 in their last ten games against teams with winning records - the Blue Jays fall into this category.

The Over/Under line for this matchup is set at 10.5, one of the highest Over/Unders on the board today.

The Yankees have something of an unearned reputation for run scoring - they’re currently tied for 17th in MLB in terms of runs scored.

This could be another area in which the Yankees are being mildly overestimated by the public and by the sportsbooks - MLB bettors should keep note.

Toronto Raptors vs. Boston Celtics

The Toronto Raptors clawed back into this series with some Game 3 heroics from Kyle Lowry and OG Anunoby.

Then, in Game 4, the Raptors not only clawed back but drew blood, evening the series 2-2.

In Game 5, the Celtics struck back hard, dominating the game and winning the most convincing victory of the series.

Now, the Raptors are down 3-2 and need to win the next two games in order to get out of this round and face off against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.

On the moneyline, the Celtics are favored in this matchup, which is a rough spot to be in for the Raptors. Nobody wants to be an underdog in an elimination game.

On the spread, the matchup looks a bit more manageable for the Raptors.

One note - while this series has been relatively even, only two of the five games played so far would fall within the margin of error of that spread - Games 2 and 3.

This is just a quirk of how basketball works - two even teams can end up producing lopsided scores based on form and happenstance.

When looking at the trends for this series, one thing really sticks out - the Celtics have been good against the spread, and the Raptors have not.

The Raptors are 1-4 ATS in the series, while the Celtics are 4-1 ATS.

Obviously, these games have been played against each other, so one team covers when the other one does not, but this is still a notable discrepancy between the two teams.

This game starts at 7:00 p.m. EST and is a must-watch for NBA bettors.

Denver Nuggets vs. Los Angeles Clippers

The Denver Nuggets find themselves down 2-1 in this series, which is obviously not a good situation. More than that, in Game 3, they delivered blow after blow to the Clippers, who just would not go down.

The Clippers kept the game close, and down the stretch, Kawhi Leonard made his presence felt as the Clippers pulled out the win.

Kawhi’s block sealed the W for the Clippers! 👋 pic.twitter.com/Db8Xn6e8DD

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) September 8, 2020

The two teams lock horns again Wednesday night, and the odds do not look good for the Nuggets.

An eight-point spread is bad news for any team on the wrong end of it, especially if that team needs to win three games to win the series. The moneyline is also pretty harsh for the Nuggets.

The big picture problem for the Nuggets is that Jamal Murray has demonstrated that his streakiness as a shooter and scorer of the ball continues. The Nuggets needed Murray to consistently be the scorer that he was in the first-round series against the Utah Jazz.

In that series, Murray scored over 30 points in four of the seven games and reached 50 points in two of them.

They don’t need him to score 50 every game, but they need him to contribute more than 20 - which he has only done once this series.

While the Jazz series was something of a coming-out party for Murray as an elite player, this series is demonstrating that perhaps those prognostications were premature.

Murray’s points Over/Under line sits at 23.5, and he’ll need to hit that Over in order for the Nuggets to have a shot in this one.

Happy Betting!