College Basketball, NBA Popular Betting Markets Friday February 21, 2025
These are your hot betting markets for Friday February 21:
Friday February 21
- Knicks vs. Cavs 7 pm (ESPN)
- Bucks vs. Wizards 7:10 pm
- Marquette vs. Villanova 7 pm (FS1)
- Michigan State vs. Michigan 8 pm (Fox)
Knicks vs. Cavs
The line on the Knicks vs. Cavs game has shot up from Cleveland -4 to -8.
OG Anunoby remains sidelined as the New York Knicks ruled him out for Thursday's home matchup against the Chicago Bulls.
Oddsmakers see a tired Knicks team following a two-point overtime win over the Bulls and a quick turnaround heading out to Cleveland on Friday. Even without this scenario, we'd still be looking at the Cavs at around a -6 point home favorite here, or a two point underlay with the early 4-point line.
The Knicks were seeing better than 70% on this number. Some of the books have moved this one up to 8.5 and we even briefly saw a 9 at DraftKings.
The Cavaliers have gone 30-7 against Eastern Conference teams. Cleveland is 3-3 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The Knicks are 26-11 in conference games. New York ranks second in the Eastern Conference scoring 54.0 points per game in the paint led by Karl-Anthony Towns averaging 13.0.
The Cavaliers make 49.6% of their shots from the field this season, which is 2.4 percentage points higher than the Knicks have allowed to their opponents (47.2%). The Knicks average 12.8 made 3-pointers per game this season, 0.5 fewer makes per game than the Cavaliers allow.
Donovan Mitchell is averaging 24 points and 4.8 assists for the Cavaliers. Evan Mobley is averaging 19.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.2 blocks over the past 10 games.
Towns is averaging 24.9 points, 13.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists for the Knicks. Jalen Brunson is averaging 2.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.
It should be noted that the Cavs also played and won on the road against the Nets Thursday night and both teams sat out some of their top players, many of whom are slated to play on Friday.
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Marquette vs. Villanova
The line had moved from -1 to -1.5 favoring the road team Marquette. The Golden Eagles have won the last eight games in this series.
The Wildcats have gone 12-3 in home games. Villanova is fourth in the Big East in team defense, giving up 67.9 points while holding opponents to 43.1% shooting.
The Golden Eagles are 11-4 in conference matchups. Marquette ranks second in the Big East scoring 35.8 points per game in the paint led by Kam Jones averaging 11.2.
Villanova averages 9.6 made 3-pointers per game, 2.7 more made shots than the 6.9 per game Marquette allows. Marquette averages 9.3 made 3-pointers per game this season, 0.6 more makes per game than Villanova gives up.
TOP PERFORMERS: Eric Dixon is scoring 22.9 points per game with 5.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists for the Wildcats. Wooga Poplar is averaging 15.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and two steals over the past 10 games.
Jones is scoring 19.0 points per game with 4.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists for the Golden Eagles. David Joplin is averaging 13.6 points and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 40.2% over the past 10 games.
While the Action Network notes that Villanova's offense has struggled in conference play with the Wildcats having only scored 80+ points twice in Big East games, they expect the Wildcats to continue their home court dominance against ranked teams. Forward Eric Dixon (22.9 points) is one of the most elite scorers in the nation but is currently in a drought. Dixon has shot below 40% in five of the last six games.
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