PITTSBURGH PIRATES @ HOUSTON ASTROS – 5:10pm
The Pittsburgh Pirates are in Houston today taking on the Astros after losing two out of their last three games to the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend. The Pirates are currently sitting 2 games outside of the last wildcard spot in the National League and are in a dogfight right now to keep their postseason hopes alive. Luckily Paul Skenes is on the mound again today to help give this team a much needed win. Skenes comes into this matchup throwing for 8 or more strikeouts in 8 out of his last 10 starts. He has been even better on the road with 8 or more strikeouts in every away game he has played this year. Look for him to continue his Cy Young Award campaign with another strong performance today in Houston.
The Pick: Paul Skenes OVER 7.5 Strikeouts.
OLYMPICS MEN’S BASKETBALL
In my opinion one of the best kinds of bets to leverage while the basketball teams are in the group play stage are “Performance Doubles” which you can find on FanDuel under the “popular” tab within any individual game. A performance double is a single bet that combines a specific player prop with that player’s team winning the game (In essence a 2 leg parlay). These are great bets to make when you know with great certainty in any given game which team will win the game so your risk is really just on the prop you need that player to hit. For example, on Saturday I won a Performance Double bet for RJ Barrett to score 15 or more points and Team Canada to win its game against Greece. Canada won the game easily and RJ was Canada’s leading scorer with 23 points. Performance Doubles are priced better than just making a two leg parlay out of the same bet and you still have the ability to parlay multiple performance doubles across different games to increase your payout.
SPAIN VS. GREECE – 7/30/24 2AM
Greece gave a strong effort in their first game against Team Canada and are largely expected to beat a Spanish team that is a significant step down in talent compared to Canada. Kostas Papanikolaou on Team Greece is a former draft pick of the Houston Rockets and a capable scorer behind Giannis Antetokounmpo. He had 17 points in their first game against Canada off a 50% 3pt FG shooting effort. With Spain now getting the luxury of watching film to help them figure out how to stop Greece I am expecting Giannis to get even more attention from Spain’s defenders. While Giannis Antetokounmpo’s points in this matchup is not a bad prop bet to focus on his line on scoring went up 5 points from his last game so the value is not as good as it was on Saturday. Look for Papanikolaou to score when Giannis faces double and triple teams from the Spanish defense on Tuesday.
The Pick: PERFORMANCE DOUBLE – Kostas Papanikolaou 10+ Pts/GREECE to Win
CANADA VS. AUSTRALIA – 7/30 4:30AM
Any basketball enthusiast knows this is one of the premier matchups we are going to see during pool play and unfortunately it’s going to be going on while most of us are asleep. Team Canada and Team Australia feature more NBA players than any other teams not named USA in this Olympic tournament and both are coming off wins in their first games of pool play. As talented as team Australia is with Josh Giddey, Patty Mills, and Jock Landale leading the charge they will have their hands full with MVP runner up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and RJ Barrett who have proven themselves to be elite scorers in this tournament. Expect this to be a close game with Canada coming out on top.
The Pick: 2 LEG PARLAY (There is no Performance Double for this you have to build it as a 2 leg parlay) – RJ Barrett 15+ points AND Canada to win moneyline.
**There is a performance double for RJ to get 20 points and Canada to win which is very possible as well this is just a less risky way to bet it.