The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (39-23-7-1) played their 70th game of the season on Wednesday night, dropping a tightly contested 3-2 affair to the Providence Bruins, who broke a tie in the standings between the two clubs.
After the victory, the Bruins (40-23-5-3) now sit in the third seed in the Atlantic Division with 88 points, while the Penguins slip down to the fourth seed with 86 points.
In the first, Atley Calvert tallied his ninth of the year to open the scoring at 10:32. Harrison Brunicke and Mathias Laferriere had helpers.
The visiting Bruins tied the contest with the only goal in the second period, a Dan Locnelis tally at 14:06. After getting outshot 15-10 in the first, Providence had the advantage in the second, 16-10, with the teams tied on the scoreboard.
At 7:50 of the third, Emil Bemström scored his team-leading 23rd goal of the season to restore his team's one-goal lead. Boris Katchouk and Nate Clurman set up his lamplighter, the Penguins' final tally of the night.
During a Clurman interference penalty kill that started at 10:06, the Bruins evened things up again at 10:59 with a Patrick Brown goal, before securing the one-goal victory at 19:33 with a Riley Tufte lamp lighter.
Somehow, Providence almost equalled their two-period shot total (26) with 20 in the third period, while limiting WBS to just six. The home team got fewer opportunities as the games progressed, going from 15 to 10 to six shots on goal.
In goal, Michael DiPietro picked up the win thanks to 29 saves on 31 shots, while Penguins' Joel Blomqvist was far busier, making 43 saves on 46 shots.
Regarding special teams, the Bruins went 1-for-3, while the Penguins failed to capitalize on their two opportunities.
WBS will play two more times before beginning their quest for the Calder Cup, facing the Hershey Bears on Friday and then the Cleveland Monsters on Saturday.
The Magic finished the 2024-25 season at an even .500 (41-41) and drew the Celtics by ousting the Atlanta Hawks in the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in matchup Tuesday night. And while Boston is heavily favored, there’s still plenty of intrigue around an Orlando group that features a stifling defense and a blossoming young star.
The Magic are undeniably talented on the defensive end, posting the second-best defensive rating in the NBA (109.1 points per 100 possessions) this season. And yet they were almost equally inefficient on the offensive side. The Magic ranked 27th in the NBA with a 108.9 offensive rating, leaving them at a -0.2 net rating overall.
Orlando made an NBA-worst 11.2 3-pointers per game while shooting a league-worst 31.8 percent beyond the arc. (Even the 29th-ranked Wizards were at 33.5 percent.) The raw numbers might be even more jarring. The Celtics, who set an NBA record for 3-pointers made in a season (1,457), connected on 536 more 3-pointers overall than Orlando.
The Magic were the best team in the NBA in limiting opponent 3-pointers. Their opponents shot just 31.4 attempts per game — three fewer than the next-best mark in the league (Houston, 34.5) — and made just 11.4 per game. The Celtics average 17.8 3-point makes on 48.2 attempts per game, and have been twisting teams in a “2s vs. 3s” math-problem pretzel all season long.
Orlando posted a 10-18 record against the top 10 offenses in the NBA this season. The team’s 106.9 offensive rating in those games ranked 29th in the league, though the defense held steady at second overall, allowing 112.7 points per 100 possessions.
Injury woes make the numbers a little murky, but even in the second half of the season with stars Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner both healthy after oblique issues, the Magic still only ranked 21st in the NBA in offensive rating.
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2. Can Cole Anthony be a consistent X-factor in this series?
Celtics fans don’t need any reminders of the sort of jolt that Cole Anthony can deliver off the bench. And if they did, they saw it first-hand in Orlando’s win over Atlanta in the 7 vs. 8 play-in matchup, where Anthony helped stiff-arm the Hawks’ third-quarter charge.
Teams lean more heavily on their cores in the playoffs, and yet Anthony feels vital to Orlando’s success. The Celtics will need solid bench contributions from soon-to-be Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard, top-3 net rating leader Luke Kornet, and 3-point connoisseur Sam Hauser. But Anthony has a way of changing the tempo and tenor of a game in a way that his stat line might not suggest.
Anthony was in the crowd at the Garden during Game 5 of the NBA Finals last year and got an up-close at Boston’s postseason dominance. The Magic are going to need a big series from him to compete, particularly in delivering an offensive jolt in a way that other defensive-minded role players like Jonathan Isaac and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope might not dent the box score.
3. Is Paolo Banchero ready for the spotlight?
It’s jarring that Banchero won’t turn 23 until next season. The former No. 1 pick has obvious star potential and showed that off during last year’s playoffs while averaging 27 points, 8.6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1.1 steals over 37.4 minutes per game in the seven-game slugfest with Cleveland.
The question is, how will he perform on a playoff stage against the defending champs? We know there’s a Duke connection with Jayson Tatum which gives both players a little extra fuel. Tatum went so far as to remind everyone that there are “no friends out there” in the playoffs during his media session on Wednesday.
Tatum logged the most matchup time against Banchero of any Boston player during the regular season, limiting Banchero to 0-of-2 shooting in just four minutes of matchup time. The Celtics fed him a steady diet of different defenders otherwise.
Banchero needs to shoulder a hefty offensive burden if Orlando is going to make this a series, and it certainly feels like Tatum vs. Banchero could become an annual event in the NBA playoffs.
4. How do the Celtics react to what the Magic do well?
The Magic have endless size. They rebound. They defend. Only the Oklahoma City Thunder created more turnovers this season. Only the Los Angeles Lakers were more efficient at getting to the free throw line.
The Celtics thrived in many of the areas where the Magic compromised other teams. Boston ranked No. 1 in opponent free-throw rate and were second in the NBA in turnover rate. The Celtics’ offensive rebound rate surged in the second half of the season (thanks, Kornet!) and they were seventh in defensive rebound percentage for the season.
Still, matchups with Orlando featured two of Boston’s worst turnover percentages of the season (albeit both without Tatum). The Celtics’ offensive efficiency plummeted in both of those games.
The Celtics simply have to be ready for Orlando’s length and ability to disrupt the way that Boston prefers to play. Joe Mazzulla’s beloved margins appear vital to this series. And the Celtics will get pushed if they lose their focus.
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The 26-year-old forward is coming off the best season of his NHL career. He scored 33 goals — 16 more than the previous campaign. He actually became the first B’s player not named Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand or David Pastrnak to score 30-plus goals since Loui Eriksson did it in 2015-16.
It’s not like Geekie padded his stats by scoring a bunch of power-play goals, either. He was highly effective at 5-on-5. In fact, his 26 goals at 5-on-5 this season were tied for the second-most in the league and led the Bruins.
Geekie is able to become a restricted free agent in July, so the Bruins do have some control over his future. He’s also eligible for arbitration if the two sides have trouble reaching a new contract.
Geekie is hoping that process is not needed.
“We hope it doesn’t come to that. Obviously, no one wants to go to arbitration. It’s not a fun time for anybody,” Geekie told reporters Thursday during the team’s end-of-season media availability.
“I’m gonna prepare like I’m gonna be at training camp on Day 1. It’s not something I’m going to give too much thought about. I’ll leave it up to my agent and Don (Sweeney) and Cam (Neely), just go about my business and things will play out how they’re gonna play out. I love playing in Boston. My family loves it here. It’s one of those things I really hope works out, and we’ll see where it goes.”
It sounds like term will likely be important to Geekie in his next deal.
“Any time you can stick around — like I said, I love it here. I’d love to be here as long as I can,” Geekie said. “That’s definitely a goal, especially with a family now, being able to be in one spot would be awesome.”
Geekie also added: “If it was up to me, I’d like to stay as long as I can. I can’t say enough good things about the organization and the guys and the culture here. I would love to stay as long as I could.”
Players who score 30-plus goals are not easy to find, and they are expensive. Geekie’s current contract that will soon expire is a two-year deal worth $2 million per season. He deserves a large raise in his next contract. And when you consider the Bruins’ lack of scoring depth, re-signing Geekie needs to be a top priority.
The Bruins are projected to have around $28 million in salary cap space this summer, per PuckPedia. Geekie and defenseman Mason Lohrei (also an RFA) are Boston’s most notable internal free agents.
They’re called free throws for a reason. Opponents aren’t supposed to be able to affect them. But Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer devised a plan to make his team’s fans an obstacle at the charity stripe.
In their first regular season playing in the brand new $2 billion Intuit Dome, Clippers’ home opponents shot 74.8% from the free throw line, the second-lowest rate in any NBA arena, ahead of only the Houston Rockets’ Toyota Center (74.0%).
One unique feature of the Clippers’ building is The Wall: an unusually steep section with 51 rows of seats behind the basket adjacent to the away team’s bench. Only certified Clipper fans are permitted to sit there, and cheering for another NBA team is forbidden. There are no suites, and there’s a Supporters Section reserved for diehards who are expected to stand throughout the game. Season passes are sold at an accessible price point.
Shooting against The Wall, specifically, visitors made just 73.4% of their foul shots, which would have ranked last in the NBA and is notably lower than the 76.1% they made on the other end of the floor.
“Yeah, it was crazy,” Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant said of The Wall in October after missing two fourth-quarter free throws facing in its direction. “I was just staring at it the whole time. You’re not used to that.”
The 3.3% disparity between opponent foul shooting at the Intuit Dome and the average NBA arena isn’t abnormal. A comparable or greater decline has been seen in at least one arena during each season since 2011.
The 4.7% dip versus The Wall, however, is an eye-opener. Comparing percentages on one end of a court with overall percentage isn’t apples to apples, but a larger drop in accuracy has only happened once in any home arena since 2000: when opponents visiting the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2014 made 69.8% of free throws from both ends combined, a wacky 5.8% below the league average.
The next season, though, in 2015, Oklahoma City’s foes completely reverted to the mean. In fact, over the past 20 years, there is nearly zero correlation between away teams’ free throw percentage in an arena and their percentage in that same arena the following season. This suggests that home teams don’t have control over how well visitors shoot from the stripe.
Being on the road at all has a minimal impact, at best. A study by Mike Beuoy showed that home teams shot just 0.2% better on free throws than away teams over the 20-year period between 1995 and 2015.
A deeper dive into the numbers does reveal some patterns. Since Ball Arena opened in 1999, the Denver Nuggets’ home opponents have shot 1.1% below league average from the line, the biggest disparity of any team, over a massive sample of more than 20,000 attempts. This data point tracks with Sportico’s previous analysis regarding Denver’s outsized home court advantage due to opponents’ difficulty acclimating to the mile-high altitude. Beuoy also found other results that “appear to be more than just statistical fluctuation” indicating that certain arenas, such as the Toyota Center, may have an anti-shooter bias.
So it is possible that Ballmer has defied the odds and actually created an arena with a legitimate, built-in competitive edge. Potential alternative explanations—that the Clippers happened to face worse shooting teams, or that they selectively avoided fouling elite shooters—fall short upon scrutiny.
Furthermore, the Clippers’ edge extends beyond free throws. Road teams shot 33.5% on 3-pointers in the Intuit Dome this year, which also ranked second-lowest among all arenas. Once again, opponents shot worse when facing The Wall—a meager 32.9% from beyond the arc.
Overall, the Clippers had just the 11th-best net rating (i.e. pace-adjusted point differential) on the road (+0.4), but the third best at home (+9.4). That 9.0 boost in net rating at home, although not an outlier by any means, was the largest in the NBA this season.
Head coach Tyronn Lue feels that the team’s home court advantage is greater than in past years. “We have our own building. We don’t have to worry about other banners hanging up. We don’t share an arena. This is home,” Lue told reporters last week. “The Wall has been great. Our fans have been great.”
The idea for The Wall was born many years ago when folks from the Bundesliga soccer team Dortmund asked to meet with Clippers president of business operations Gillian Zucker and other executives. The Clippers became interested in the Yellow Wall, Dortmund’s standing fan section with a capacity of nearly 25,000. “They were picking our brains, and then we decided to pick theirs a little bit,” Zucker said.
The organization devoted a team to research fan sections across college sports, European leagues and around the world, which eventually led to the concept for The Wall.
Helping the team win was a primary motivator for the new arena project. “[Ballmer] went from believing that being a tenant in a building was a great asset to believing that the only way truly to field the most competitive team possible is to have your own arena,” Zucker said.
The Clippers believe other features of their venue provide additional advantages. The 44,000 square foot LED “Halo” scoreboard gives the franchise a huge canvas with which to engage fans. The ability to show multiple replay angles concurrently can also help the coaching staff decide whether or not to challenge calls.
Decibel readers in the rafters of the arena can measure the loudest seats in the building, and the Clippers reward those fans with prizes to incentivize more fervent cheering.
The facility as a whole is designed to keep fans in their seats during the action, from frictionless commerce to an abundance of restrooms to countdown clocks that tell people how much time they have to get back to the game.
Interestingly, the Clippers’ opponent in the first round of the playoffs is the one team with a well-documented exceptional home court advantage over multiple decades: the Nuggets. Denver has the league’s second-best home winning percentage this century as well as the largest differential between home and road net rating. And it’s not a fluke—Denver’s abnormally strong performance in Colorado extends to MLB and the NFL and NHL.
Time will tell if the Clippers’ advantage is real. One season is still a miniscule sample size. If opponents had made just seven more free throws against The Wall this season, their percentage on that basket would have risen above 75% and this story would probably have been moot.
With a few more years of data, we’ll have a better idea of whether the Intuit Dome is a precedent-setter for professional sports venues or simply Ballmer’s folly.
The 6-foot-4 Toronto native was considered one of the top guards in the transfer portal after averaging 16.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists a game this season for the Tigers.
Here are five things to watch and predictions as the Yankees hit the road to take on the Tampa Bay Rays in a four-game series starting on Thursday...
Preview
Familiar park
The Yankees and Rays have had plenty of battles at Tropicana Field, but this season will see the teams face off in a different park: George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Yes, the Yankees' spring training field is being used for Rays home games this season after their stadium was damaged by a hurricane during the offseason. How will this play for the Yanks? Their team is used to playing there, especially since the dimensions are identical to Yankee Stadium.
Will Warren, Carlos Carrasco encores?
Both Warren and Carrasco -- who were on the cusp of being replaced when Clarke Schmidt returned -- had their best outings of the season last weekend.
Now, each starter will have another shot to prove they deserve to remain in the rotation when Marcus Stroman (knee) eventually returns from the IL.
Warren will try and set the tone in the series-opener on Thursday. He'll be opposed by impressive right-hander Taj Bradley, so this will be a big test for Warren. Is he able to string quality starts together after picking up his first win in the big leagues his last time out?
As for Carrasco, the veteran's great spring training didn't carry over in the early going, but he pitched five innings of one-run ball in the series-opener with Kansas City, the best of his short Yankees career. New York needs Carrasco to continue his effectiveness if the Bombers want to improve on having one of the worst ERAs from a starting staff this season.
Aaron Judge power surge incoming?
The captain was quietly having a power outage. Entering Wednesday's series finale against the Royals, Judge had not hit a home run in 10 games. Although he was still getting on base and getting hits, that power was not showing. Luckily for the Yanks, the power emerged just when the team needed it most as his seventh-inning blast lifted New York to a series sweep over the Royals.
Now that Judge has finally gone yard, perhaps more are soon to follow. Judge has a habit of hitting his homers in bunches, and going down to the warm climate of Tampa in a familiar park can't hurt.
Apr 13, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees starting pitcher Carlos Rodón (55) stands on the mound in the sixth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Yankee Stadium / Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
Can Carlos Rodon stop giving up homers?
I've been a staunch defender of Rodon this season. Despite not pitching up to the $162 million contract, the potential to be a No. 3 starter is there.
In just his last two starts, he's allowed nine runs, but six of them came on two three-run home runs that completely decimated what otherwise would be quality starts. But the long ball has been Rodon's bugaboo since he donned the pinstripes. He has allowed 51 homers in his first 50 games with the Yanks, which tied him with JA Happ for the most home runs allowed by a Yankees pitcher in his first 50 games with the team. That includes the five jacks he's allowed in his four starts this year.
Rodon will pitch the second game of the series against a Rays team that has hit 19 home runs in their 18 games, which is tied for 15th in the majors. Perhaps this could be a get-right game for the southpaw.
More Martian development
Arguably, the biggest development coming out of the Royals series is how well Jasson Dominguez has played in the outfield and hit at the plate. His bases-clearing double on Tuesday lifted the Yankees to a win and came as a right-handed hitter -- it was only his second hit against a lefty this season.
New York will face a quartet of right-handed starters in this series, so any at-bats hitting right-handed will have to come against relievers, but Dominguez is looking more comfortable at the plate and he's produced. Against the Royals, he went 3-for-8 with two walks and drove in three RBI.
Let's see if he can carry that over into this series.
Predictions
Who will the MVP of the series be?
Ben Rice
The young slugger got a much-needed day off Wednesday and will likely lead off against the aforementioned quartet of righties in this series.
Which Yankees pitcher will have the best start?
Max Fried
Until the other starters step up consistently, Fried (1.88 ERA) will always be the odds-on favorite to pitch the best.
Which Rays player will be a thorn in the Yankees' side?
Yandy Diaz
The first baseman enters this series on a six-game hitting streak, and is a career .270 hitter in 81 games against the Yankees.
It’s never wise to compare apples to oranges. Or trades involving five-time All-NBA, franchise-altering superstars to trades involving, well, players of a much lesser pedigree.
That’s what Dallas Mavericks CEO Rick Welts did in his and general manager Nico Harrison’s private media “roundtable” on Tuesday.
Welts, who previously served as Warriors president from 2011-2021, discussed Dallas’ stunning trade involving guard Luka Dončić earlier this season and was asked how the organization plans to rebuild trust with its fans after the shocking move angered a large portion of them. To put it lightly.
In doing so, Welts compared Dallas’ move to Golden State shipping guard Monta Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson midway through the 2011-12 NBA season.
“At Golden State. When I got there, we had one marketable player that our fans love. His name was Monta Ellis. We traded Monta Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks for an injured Andrew Bogut, who wasn’t going to play that season,” Welts told reporters. “Ten days later, our new owner, Joe Lacob, was booed off the court trying to retire Chris Mullin’s uniform to bring him back into the fold of the Warriors. Booed off the court.
“The ball came out of Monta Ellis’s hands, was put in this young guard named Steph Curry. Four championships later, that worked out pretty well.
“So, I would just say that this story is unfinished. We understand the pain, we’re listening. We hear every day the pain that people are feeling. But I think you have to judge us, from this day forward on, whether or not we’re going to conduct ourselves as an organization and as a basketball team in a way that that fans can embrace.”
Mavericks, Warriors and NBA fans alike, understandably, were bewildered by Welts’ comparison given Dončić widely has been regarded as one of the top-five players, at least, in the NBA since his debut in 2018 and was believed to be one of the very rare “untouchable” superstars before he stunningly was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 2, while Ellis, albeit a star player for the Warriors from 2005-2012, simply does not compare to a player like Dončić.
Mavericks CEO Rick Welts compared the Mavericks trading Luka to the Warriors trading Monta Ellis 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
They are the most clueless out of touch front office in the history of sports
The problem with Welts’ comparison, as one of the social media users above points out, is that Dončić is Curry in this scenario and Dallas does not have a potential superstar waiting in the wings like Curry was behind Ellis in 2009.
Fortunately for the Warriors, their trade was followed by four NBA championships. While it still is too soon to tell, for some, if the Mavericks’ trade will pan out as they hope it will, most seem to agree that it certainly will not.
On a team with stars like Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, and Kevin Fiala, the name Alex Laferriere may not be well known among NHL fan bases, but Kings' head coach Jim Hiller would probably say it should be.
"He's going to be a really important player for us in the playoffs because he going to bring physicality and he started that tonight," said Hiller, following LA's 5-4 win against Colorado on April 12th.
The 23-year-old native of Chatham, New Jersey has shown an ability to mix it up since his NHL debut on October 11th, 2023, when he dropped the gloves against the Avs' Logan O'Connor.
First time I've seen a family celebrate a guy fighting in his NHL debut like Alex Laferriere's family pic.twitter.com/j6i0aHfQLs
While Laferriere is certainly no enforcer, he never shies away from contact. His 124 hits are good for third on the team behind Tanner Jeannot (211) and rookie Samuel Helenius, who has already made an impressive 145 hits in just 49 games played.
Offensively, Laferriere has made it a habit to improve on his numbers every year, even going back to his college hockey days at Harvard. In his first season with the Crimson in 2021-22, Laferriere recorded 31 points (14 G 17 A) and was the ECAC (Eastern College Athletic Conference) Hockey Rookie of the Year. Laferriere had an even better sophomore year when he struck for 42 points (21 G 21 A) and helped lead Harvard to the NCAA hockey tournament.
At the NHL level, Laferriere is showing the same knack for consistent improvement. He had 23 points for the Kings (12 G 11 A) in 81 games in his first season but has come close to doubling that output in 76 games this year. Laferriere has 19 goals and 23 assists heading into LA's final regular season game against Calgary on April 16th. Should he score against the Flames, it would give the Kings six 20+ goal scorers, a testament to LA's scoring depth.
All in all, Alex Laferriere has emerged as a key component for the LA Kings this season. With the injured Tanner Jeannot still listed as week-to-week, the Kings will need Laferriere to continue to ramp up his physical play. His mix of grit and offensive upside will be needed if the Kings intend on finally vanquishing the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the playoffs.
Its Thursday, April 17 and the Giants (13-5) are in Philadelphia to wrap up their four-game series against the Phillies (10-8).
Jordan Hicks is slated to take the mound for San Francisco against Cristopher Sánchez for Philadelphia.
The Giants have taken two of the first three games of the series. San Francisco picked up 13 hits and scored 11 runs last night in an 11-4 win. Phillies' ace Aaron Nola was uncharacteristically bad giving up nine hits and six earned runs in 5.1 innings.
Lets dive into the matchup and find a sweat or two.
We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch tipoff, odds, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.
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Game details & how to watch Giants at Phillies
Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025
Time: 4:05PM EST
Site: Citizens Bank Park
City: Philadelphia, PA
Network/Streaming: NBCSBA, NBCSP+
Never miss a second of the action and stay up-to-date with all the latest team stats and player news. Check out our day-by-day MLB schedule page, along with detailed matchup pages that update live in-game with every out.
Odds for the Giants at the Phillies
The latest odds as of Thursday:
Moneyline: Giants (+143), Phillies (-171)
Spread: Phillies -1.5
Total: 8.0 runs
Probable starting pitchers for Giants at Phillies
Pitching matchup for April 17, 2025: Jordan Hicks vs. Cristopher Sánchez
Giants: Jordan Hicks (1-1, 5.87 ERA) Last outing: 4/12 at Yankees - 4IP, 7ER, 8H, 3BB, 3Ks
Phillies: Cristopher Sánchez (1-0, 3.12 ERA) Last outing: 4/12 at St. Louis - 6.1IP, 1ER, 8H, 2BB, 3Ks
Rotoworld still has you covered with all the latest MLB player news for all 30 teams. Check out the feed page right here on NBC Sports for headlines, injuries and transactions where you can filter by league, team, positions and news type!
Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Giants at Phillies
Bryce Harper is riding a 5-game hitting streak (6-19)
Jung Hoo Lee has hits in 6 of his last 7 games for the Giants (11-28)
The OVER has cashed in the last 3 games for Philly but only 7 times overall this season
If you’re looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our MLB Top Trends tool on NBC Sports!
Expert picks & predictions for today’s game between the Giants and the Phillies
Rotoworld Best Bet
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Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Thursday's game between the Giants and the Phillies:
Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is staying away from a play on the Moneyline.
Spread: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play ATS on the San Francisco Giants at +1.5.
Total: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the over on the Game Total of 8.0.
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Its Thursday, April 17 and the Athletics (8-10) are in Chicago looking to finish off a three-game sweep of the White Sox (4-13).
JP Sears is slated to take the mound for Oakland against Davis Martin for Chicago.
The A's won last night 3-1. Osvaldo Bido threw 5.2 innings and allowed just one run on five hits to earn his second win of the season.
Lets dive into today's matchup and find a sweat or two.
We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch tipoff, odds, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.
Follow Rotoworld Player News for the latest fantasy and betting player news and analysis all season long.
Game details & how to watch Athletics at White Sox
Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025
Time: 2:10PM EST
Site: Rate Field
City: Chicago, IL
Network/Streaming: NBCSCA, CHSN
Never miss a second of the action and stay up-to-date with all the latest team stats and player news. Check out our day-by-day MLB schedule page, along with detailed matchup pages that update live in-game with every out.
Odds for the Athletics at the White Sox
The latest odds as of Thursday:
Moneyline: Athletics (-156), White Sox (+131)
Spread: Athletics -1.5
Total: 8.0 runs
Probable starting pitchers for Athletics at White Sox
Pitching matchup for April 17, 2025: JP Sears vs. Davis Martin
Athletics: JP Sears (1-2, 4.24 ERA) Last outing: 4/11 vs. Mets - 4IP, 3ER, 6H, 1BB, 7Ks
White Sox: Davis Martin (1-1, 4.24 ERA) Last outing: 4/11 vs. Boston - 6IP, 1ER, 6H, 1BB, 6Ks
Rotoworld still has you covered with all the latest MLB player news for all 30 teams. Check out the feed page right here on NBC Sports for headlines, injuries and transactions where you can filter by league, team, positions and news type!
Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Athletics at White Sox
The Athletics have won 3 of their last 5 games
The Athletics have covered in 4 of their last 5 games showing a profit of 2.46 units
The Under is 7-3 in the White Sox's last 10 games
The White Sox have lost three in a row and nine of their last eleven games
The White Sox are 9-8 for the season on the Run Line
If you’re looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our MLB Top Trends tool on NBC Sports!
Expert picks & predictions for today’s game between the Athletics and the White Sox
Rotoworld Best Bet
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Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the MLB calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, ballpark information and weather forecasts.
Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.
Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Thursday's game between the Athletics and the White Sox:
Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the Oakland Athletics on the Moneyline.
Spread: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play ATS on the Chicago White Sox at +1.5.
Total: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the over on the Game Total of 8.0.
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A week before the 2025 NFL draft, all 32 teams still have their first-round draft picks. That is unprecedented.
As noted on the Cardinals' website, this was already the first year since the first common draft in 1967 in which every team still had its own first-round pick at the start of the league year.
There also hasn't been a traded first-round pick since the start of the league year, and if there isn't one before the draft starts on Thursday, it will be the first year since 2014 when no first-round picks were traded between the start of the league year and the opening of the draft.
The highest pick that has been traded in this year's draft is No. 39 overall, which the Panthers sent to the Bears in 2023 as part of the trade up to the first overall pick that year, which allowed the Panthers to select Bryce Young first overall.
It was back in September — long before the Montreal Canadiens went on a Cinderella run that resulted in a wild card berth in their final game of the regular season — that Nick Suzuki revealed to The Hockey News that this year might just be more than another rebuilding year.
In other words, forget about getting another top-5 pick in the draft. The Habs captain was more interested in grabbing a playoff spot.
"Personally, I feel like you can’t just keep stockpiling prospects," Suzuki said back then. "I want to be in the playoffs. I’ve been in the playoffs twice now and they haven’t been on normal circumstances, so I haven’t got to play at the Bell Centre in front of a sold-out crowd. That’s definitely something I’m itching for this year."
On Wednesday, Suzuki scratched that itch.
The Canadiens have done the improbable — if not the seemingly impossible.
That they did it before the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings ended their playoff droughts should not be lost on the Chicago Blackhawks or San Jose Sharks or any other franchise that preaches a long rebuild in order to get back to the playoffs. Yes, the Canadiens haven't been in the post-season since reaching the Stanley Cup final in 2021. But compared to the Ottawa Senators, who missed for seven years, this return to the playoffs feels very premature.
No one was picking the Habs to be a wild card when the season began. Now, they will face the top-seeded Washington Capitals in the first round, where the Canadiens are the "underdogs."
However, bet against them at your own peril.
"We wanted to make playoffs no matter what and we did it. That was our main goal all the time," Suzuki told reporters after the playoff-clinching 4-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night. "You can't talk loud about it. It was our little goal that we kept between us and, yeah, it happened."
Mission Accomplished, The Canadiens Are Back In The PlayoffsThe puck dropped on the Montreal Canadiens’ 82nd game of the season at the Bell Centre on Wednesday night, with the Carolina Hurricanes in town. Martin St-Louis’ men had already failed to clinch a playoff berth in their last three games, and expectations were high in Montreal, especially since the visitors decided to rest some of their regular players. Rod Brind’Amour even went as far as using Jesperi Kotkaniemi as his top-line center.
It happened mostly because of Suzuki, who since the March 7 trade deadline has scored the fifth-most points of any player in the NHL. But the Canadiens probably wouldn't have qualified without the unlikely contributions from their youngsters.
Defenseman Lane Hutson, who is the favorite to win the Calder Trophy, led all NHL rookies with 66 points in 82 games. Juraj Slafkovsky, who was the No. 1 overall pick in 2022 draft, had a breakout year with 51 points. Cole Caufield, who is still only 24, led the team with 37 goals. Even 18-year-old Ivan Demidov, who has played in two games since coming over from Russia, has contributed with a goal and an assist.
And then, there were the players who everyone thought would have been gone by now.
Instead of trading Jake Evans at the deadline, the team signed him to an extension. On Wednesday, he rewarded that decision by scoring the empty-netter that sealed the win. Marc Savard, another player who was rumored to be moved, led the team with 180 blocked shots.
"Top to bottom, we have really deep forwards," said Suzuki. "I think our young D will just keep getting better. We’re adding probably some young guys that will make the team and give us a boost. From the first line to the fourth line, I think we could be one of the deepest at that position."
Add it up and Montreal looks like they could be one of those dark horse teams that goes further than anyone expected. By making the playoffs, they've already done that.
WBS Penguins Sign Three Players For 2025-26 SeasonThe Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins continue their quest for the Calder Cup this season, but the club is also looking towards the future, agreeing to contracts with three NCAA players for next season.
