© Copyright khedmeh Wall
All good things must eventually come to an end.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were bound to lose eventually.
A road loss against the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics wasn’t exactly a surprise to anybody.
The Celtics were bet up from -3.5 all the way to Celtics -7 prior to tip-off.
As it turns out, anybody who bet on Boston to hand Cleveland its first loss of the season cashed their bet.
Anybody who laid the points with the Celtics lost.
Despite leading by as many as 21 points in the third quarter, Boston was outscored by 18 points over the better part of the final two quarters and survived a late scare in a 120-117 victory.
Cleveland’s longest win streak in franchise history and the second-longest win streak in NBA history is officially in the books.
Now the focus shifts to the future, and whether the Cavaliers will have what it takes to challenge the Celtics when it matters the most in the spring.
While I had Boston moneyline on a couple of FanDuel Same Game Parlays, the focus for my FanDuel Best Bet in this column on Tuesday was a pair of late games.
Fortunately, my hot streak has not ended yet as the NBA has been very good to me early on this season.
With another NBA triple feature on TSN+ on deck, I’ll lock in another FanDuel Best Bet for tonight’s slate at the end of this column.
First, it’s time to take a closer look at a playoff dark horse in the AFC, and whether that team can stay hot with another victory in Week 12.
This is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday, November 20th, 2024.
The Detroit Lions are the Super Bowl favourite at FanDuel entering Week 12 of the NFL regular season.
Three of the other top four choices to win it all reside in the AFC.
The Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, and Baltimore Ravens were all popular picks to win the Super Bowl.
The Houston Texans remain the clear frontrunner to win the AFC South and host a playoff game.
Will any other AFC team contend for the Super Bowl?
The Pittsburgh Steelers are the biggest mover as they can be found at +2100 to win it all this morning – a top 10 choice at the same odds as the Minnesota Vikings.
The Los Angeles Chargers are +2500 to win it all.
Then there’s the Denver Broncos at +7000.
The Broncos won’t win the Super Bowl this season.
At the same time, few bettors expected them to be in a playoff position in the loaded AFC entering Week 12.
Following an 0-2 start, Denver has won six of its previous nine games to climb into a postseason position at 6-5.
All four AFC teams they’ve lost to have shorter odds to win the Super Bowl in the Chiefs, Ravens, Steelers, and the Chargers.
And they very nearly ended Kansas City’s perfect start.
Looking forward, the Broncos will face only two teams with a winning record over their final six games in the Chiefs and the Chargers.
At least on paper, Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders looks like a must-win if Denver is going to contend for a playoff spot.
If the Broncos can string together consecutive wins over the Raiders and Cleveland Browns the next two weeks, they’ll be 9-6 entering their bye with games against the Indianapolis Colts, Chargers, Cincinnati Bengals, and the Chiefs to close out the regular season.
Denver is currently considered a coin toss to make the playoffs at FanDuel at -110 odds.
Another win over the Raiders gives the Broncos more than a fighting chance to shock the NFL this season.
FanDuel bettors love their chances against Las Vegas.
Denver has been bet up from -2.5 to -5.5 at FanDuel.
The good news for anybody who missed the boat on Broncos -2.5 is that there are still plenty of Same Game Parlay and traditional parlay options to explore.
I’ll lock in a traditional two-team parlay with Denver to beat Las Vegas and the Washington Commanders to cover the alt spread -2.5 against the Dallas Cowboys as a FanDuel Best Bet at -120 odds.
While the Broncos are in the thick of a playoff race, the Raiders have already turned their attention to the future.
I can certainly envision something close a repeat of the Week 5 meeting between these teams that Denver won by double digits.
Meanwhile, the Commanders are looking to snap their first losing streak of the season, and I can’t think of a better spot for them to do exactly that then a revenge game for Dan Quinn at home against the Dallas Cowboys.
A traditional parlay at -120 odds with Denver to win outright and Washington to beat Dallas by three points or more is my first FanDuel Best Bet for Week 12 in the NFL.
In case you missed it, we cashed another NBA SGP+ in Tuesday’s Morning Coffee column.
We also hit a +504 no-sweat SGP for the late game.
First up, I’ll take Donovan Mitchell to score 15+ points, Darius Garland to record 4+ assists and the Cleveland Cavaliers to beat the New Orleans Pelicans.
Mitchell is coming off back-to-back 30+ point performances.
He’s scored at least 22 points in five straight games.
He scored 29 points in a win over the Pelicans earlier this season and has averaged 21.4 points in seven home games this season.
Meanwhile, Garland just shot 3-of-21 in last night’s loss to Boston.
He should be motivated to bounce back tonight at home and while we should see his shooting percentage regress to the mean, I prefer 4+ assists as an SGP+ leg here.
The Pelicans rank 29th in assists per game allowed to opposing point guards.
Garland has record six or more assists in four straight and nine of his last 10.
He’s registered four or more assists in every single game this season except one – he had three assists in a win over the New York Knicks back in October.
He had nine assists in a 131-122 win over New Orleans earlier this season.
I’ll start with Mitchell 15+ points, Garland 4+ assists, and Cleveland to win.
I’ll finish with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to score 20 or more points and the Oklahoma City Thunder to beat the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Thunder are coming off back-to-back losses for the first time this season.
They’re currently a 12.5-point favourite for tonight’s game against Portland, who they beat by 23 points on the road in their first meeting.
SGA went for 30 points on 12-of-18 shooting with seven rebounds and six assists in that victory.
He’s cleared 20 points in every single home game except one – an 18-point performance on 7-of-20 from the field against the San Antonio Spurs in late October.
Coming off back-to-back 30+ point performances, I expect SGA to step up tonight and lead Oklahoma City to a bounce-back win at home.
This NBA builder SGP+ can be found at +104 odds at FanDuel this morning.
Due to popular demand, I might mess around and post the longshot SGP+ to my X account later this afternoon.
The Wall