This Week's Best Spot Bet Opportunities
By Ben Burns
Covers.com
Letdown spot
The Los Angeles Clippers get another shot at the reigning NBA champs Thursday night when the Golden State Warriors come to the Staples Center for a Pacific Division battle. The Warriors edged the Clippers in their last meeting, taking down L.A. 112-108 earlier this month, failing to cover as 7.5-point home chalk. It will be the main event of a big Thursday card, and leaves Los Angeles wide open to the letdown spot the very next night.
Following the home date with Golden State, the Clippers travel up the coast to take on the Portland Trail Blazers Friday night. The Blazers are always a tough team at home and L.A. has struggled away from La-La Land, losing three straight road games going into Friday’s tilt. The Clippers have yet to play Portland this season and were 3-1 SU versus the Blazers last year, going 2-2 ATS in those games.
Lookahead spot
It’s been a while since the Apple Cup meant something. The annual battle between Washington and Washington State has been one-sided in recent years, with the Huskies knocking off the rival Cougars by a combined score of 58-30 the last two seasons. However, 2015 is lining up much differently with WSU playing its best football in years and Washington trailing it in the Pac-12 standings.
The Huskies are just 4-6 on the season and only 2-5 in conference play, needing two wins in the final two games to become bowl eligible. But Washington can salvage some of this lost season with a win over Wazzou in the finale. Before that, WU is giving 15 points to host Oregon State this weekend – a lot of points considering the massive lookahead spot in front of the 2-6 Huskies. The Beavers have covered in eight of their past 11 meetings with Washington.
Schedule spot
The non-conference college basketball schedule can keep teams on the road for a while and take them far, far away from campus. East Carolina crosses the map for a week-long Western road trip, starting in Berkley Friday night versus No. 14 Cal, then heading to San Diego State to play the Aztecs Sunday.
Then ECU’s trip heads to the desert – but the fun kind of desert – when the Pirates hit Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Invitational, where they play Arkansas State on the Thanksgiving Thursday and Bethune-Cookman or Stetson the next day. That’s four games in eight days with a lot of travel and time-zone difference to boot. Oh, and of course, the distractions of Sin City in those final two games.