This Week's Best Spot Bet Opportunities
By Ben Burns
Covers.com
Lookahead spot
There’s bad blood brewing between the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers, stemming from DeAndre Jordan’s summer of drama when he committed to signing with the Mavs then backed out at the last minute to resign with the Clippers. Dallas owner Marc Cuban will be out for blood when his Mavericks travel to Tinsel Town to play L.A. Thursday night. Watch your back DeAndre!
However, before that showdown with Los Angeles, the Mavericks open their season in Phoenix Wednesday. It seems funny to say a team could be lacking focus for its first game of the new schedule, but with what’s gone on between Dallas and L.A., the Mavs could get caught looking past the Suns, who are 4.5-point home favorites and have covered in five straight versus Dallas.
Letdown spot
The San Diego State Aztecs got a huge home win over Utah State last weekend, smashing the Aggies 48-14 as 4-point home pups. San Diego State has followed a three-game losing skid with a four-game winning run, heading into this Saturday’s trip up the mountains to play Colorado State.
The Rams aren’t the same program without departed head coach Jim McElwain but picked up a big win over Air Force last week, topping the Falcons 38-23 as 3.5-point home dogs. Fort Collins is a tough place to play and CSU is 3-1-1 ATS inside Hughes Stadium. The underdog is 5-1 ATS in the last six between these programs, and with SDSU in letdown mode there could be value with the Rams.
Schedule spot
The New York Jets will spend plenty of time on their namesakes this week, travelling to the West Coast for a game against the Oakland Raiders. New York is coming off a disappointing loss to the Patriots in Week 7 and haven’t been at their best when jumping the country in past seasons.
Going from coast to coast is something N.Y. has only done three times since 2011, but that trio of road tilts haven’t been kind to Gang Green. The last three times the Jets went west, they were crushed 31-0 by San Diego, lost 28-7 to Seattle, and were dropped 34-24 by Oakland. Of course, this year’s squad has shown promise but New York is just 3-6 ATS in its last nine games coming off a showdown with New England.