Today’s best bets: Pacers-Knicks, Oilers-Stars, Ronald Acuña’s return highlight top picks from model, experts

The Eastern Conference Finals gave us one of the most exciting Game 1s ever when the Indiana Pacers rallied back from down 14 with less than three minutes remaining to send the game into overtime and ultimately come away with a 138-135 win. Game 2 is set for Madison Square Garden tonight at 8 p.m. ET, and though the New York Knicks are 6-point favorites on the consensus line, it’s hard to imagine Knicks fans or bettors heading into tip-off with any amount of confidence in the home team after what we saw Wednesday. The public action slightly skewed toward the Pacers on the spread as of Friday morning, while tickets were roughly 50/50 between the two teams on the money line, per SportsLine.

The Stanley Cup playoffs have featured three blowouts to start the conference finals, but the Edmonton Oilers will be looking to pull off the upset as slight underdogs to even the West finals in Dallas, with Game 2 starting at 8 p.m. ET tonight. This rematch of last year’s conference finals saw the Stars ride five third-period goals to victory in Game 1 as they try to break their losing streak in this round, having fallen just short of the Stanley Cup Final in each of the last two seasons. The Oilers and Connor McDavid are looking to break an even longer run of futility as the last Canadian team standing, with the 1992-93 Montreal Canadiens the last such squad to win the Stanley Cup. Dallas is a -116 favorite on the consensus line.

Both playoff games feature in today’s best bets at CBS Sports, along with an MLB slate that includes Dodgers veteran Clayton Kershaw making his second start since returning from injury and facing off with the Mets in New York, a WNBA slate with the Golden State Valkyries coming off their first ever win, and two Serie A games that will decide the league champion between Napoli and Inter Milan. Plus, we’ll share a few bonus NFL and French Open picks from SportsLine experts as well below, along with featured sportsbook promos from some of the best sports betting apps for those who live in states where betting on sports is legal.

Today’s top betting model picks

Parlay odds at FanDuel: +1418

Game 1 had to be about as demoralizing as any playoff loss could be for the Knicks, who now have to put themselves back together and earn a 1-1 split at home before the Eastern Conference Finals move to Indiana. Road teams started 6-0 in the 2025 NBA playoffs but are 6-11 since, and the Knicks have been far better at covering (58-46-1 ATS) throughout the regular season and playoffs combined than the Pacers (44-48-1 ATS). That’s not stopping the model from backing Indiana, though the model does have the Knicks winning outright by a small margin. Bettors looking to back the Pacers will want to head to BetMGM with the road team catching 6.5 points at that sportsbook versus six points in the majority of the market.

The model is also backing the Stars to extend their series lead to 2-0 against the Oilers, who are dealing with issues at goaltender as Calvin Packard has been recovering from an injury and Stuart Skinner struggled mightily in the series opener. That has led to the Stars winning in 62% of simulations, and the model also has strong plays on Edmonton’s Connor McDavid (-115, BetMGM) and Leon Draisaitl (-162, DraftKings) to finish with Under 1.5 points.

Pete Alonso hasn’t homered since May 5, but the conditions are right to back him tonight with Clayton Kershaw dealing with reduced velocity in his return to action last week in which he surrendered five runs. SportsLine data analyst Jacob Fetner sees value backing Alonso at +320 at FanDuel, as the model believes the odds for Alonso to homer should be around +290.

Today’s expert best bets

CBS baseball writer Matt Snyder is “diving right in” on Acuña as the Braves star returns from a torn ACL on Friday. The likely leadoff hitter was 5-for-12 with two doubles and a home run during his rehab assignment, and he is more than capable of taking care of this Over on one swing. DraftKings has slightly better value on the Over than the market consensus at +125.

Betting writer Max Meyer is taking the Seattle Storm to cover against the Phoenix Mercury on Friday with the spread at just 2.5 points. The Mercury closed as six-point ‘dogs in this matchup less than a week ago but went on to win in blowout fashion, but too much is being made on a one-game sample with the adjustment of this line, especially considering the Storm are now at home in the rematch. Expect Seattle to shoot better tonight and cover the short number.

SportsLine soccer expert Jon Eimer has locked in picks on both the Napoli and Inter matches with the Serie A title on the line Friday, including both teams to score and Over 2.5 goals in the Como-Inter Milan game. Como are unbeaten in eight straight matches and have scored in 14 consecutive matches, so this won’t be a walk in the park for Inter as they try and earn at least a point and hope Napoli falls short in their match.

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Today’s featured sportsbook promo

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See other promos that the other top sportsbooks are offering.