With Duke set to take on Clemson on the road Thursday night in a rematch of January's hotly-contested Blue Devil win, the Blue Zone has you covered with some can't-miss prop bets:
Duke (-6.5) vs. Clemson
If Monday night’s heartbreaker against Virginia taught us anything, it’s that anything can happen when you’re playing in this league. The Cavaliers had a 16-point loss to North Carolina just around one month before Duke blew out the same team by 20 points Saturday night. Accordingly, the Blue Devils hosted the Cavaliers at Cameron Indoor Stadium as 12.5-point favorites. But in the end, Duke fell short on the basket it needed to pull off a win and tallied its fourth loss of the season.
There’s a lot of uncertainty about what’s in store for Duke as it heads down to Clemson, S.C., but given the Tigers’ recent loss to the Tar Heels, it’s likely that the Blue Devils walk away with a victory. Coming into the match Thursday, Clemson has a two-game losing streak, beginning with a 69-64 fall to Georgia Tech and then a 79-77 defeat at the hands of the Tar Heels Tuesday. Though the Tigers lost to the same North Carolina team Duke handed a blowout loss, they also played the Blue Devils a few weeks ago and only fell short by two points. With that in mind, many questions remain about Duke’s consistency, especially considering this is the group’s third match in six days. There are a lot of different scenarios that could play out, and it’s a major risk to expect the Blue Devils to pull off a seven-point triumph against Clemson.
Pick: Clemson +6.5
Over/Under 142 points
Only four of the Tigers’ 12 conference matches have exceeded 142 points, with most of their battles—including the Jan. 25 date with the Blue Devils—turning out to be lower-scoring affairs. The same rings true for Duke, with four conference games above this total. However, with these two teams playing for the second time this season, both teams have the advantage of prior knowledge on their side. Duke and Clemson have already battled it out on the season, and there is unfinished business to resolve for both squads. The two should put together a similar game to what we’ve seen previously, and that’s likely to be low-scoring.
Pick: Under 142
Wendell Moore Jr. over/under 10 points
Wendell Moore Jr. may not be the top-scoring player on this Blue Devil roster, but he’s one of the team's most consistent contributors. There have only been two instances in the past five matches in which the junior captain has logged less than 10 points, and one of those times, he had nine. The Charlotte native has been a stronghold for Duke all season and has established himself as an irreplaceable player on the court—especially in the starting five. He hasn’t had many scoring performances with the same high numbers he tallied at the beginning of the season, but playing against a familiar team might be the motivation he needs to put up those numbers again. With a 13-point performance the last time the wing battled against Clemson head coach Brad Brownell’s squad, it’s likely that he’ll be hungry for more and want to lead the Blue Devils to a victory after the Virginia loss.
Pick: Over 10 points
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