Tuley: Monday Best Bets in NBA and NHL playoffs, plus MLB on busy holiday card

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Sunday Best Bet Results

On the 7th day, I rested. After a week of running around 24/7 all over Oahu on our Tuley family vacation, Sunday was a pretty relaxing day to rest up for the rest of our trip (we’re here through Thursday).
We went to church with grandma and also went swimming and took my son out for pizza (wife took grandma, the other kids and some friends to the “My Bodyguard” musical in downtown Honolulu).

 

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As for our requisite sports viewing/betting activities, the Indianapolis 500 started at 6:30 a.m. local time and we were deprived of the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race. As for my MLB bets, I went 0-2 for the first time in a week as I lost on the Twins as they trailed the Blue Jays 2-0 after 5 innings and the Rangers’ offense also let us down as they also trailed 2-0 at the Orioles after 5.
It was a disappointing day in that regard, but we’re still counting our blessings as we’re 36-27-7 (57.1%) in the month of May – still impressive when you consider that many of those wins have been underdogs – and the plus-money has kept us showing a net profit of $1,154.64 based on $100 flat bets, according to the VSiN Pro Picks page.
Let’s look for more Best Bets on Monday as we’ll repeat our NBA play that we gave out in yesterday’s column and then add an NHL play and 1 more in MLB.

NBA Monday Best Bet

Heat +8 at Celtics: Like I said above, we gave this out in the Sunday version of this column as it opened as high as +9 and +8.5 at some books and I saw it dropping, so locked in for the purpose of this column and on the VSiN Pro Picks page. As of late Sunday night (Hawaii time . . . early Monday back in Vegas and even later in the morning back East), the line is down to 7 at most books. We hope our sharp followers grabbed at least +8, though we still think this line is overinflated at 7, so it’s up to you if you jump in with us. As I also wrote yesterday, this is the rare time where we won a zig-zag play with the Heat +3 covering in their 104-103 loss to the Celtics on a buzzer-beating tip-in and still get them in the zig-zag role here. And they beat the Celtics outright in Games 1 and 2 in Boston. The Celtics did cover at home in Game 5, but I still believe we’re on the more likely side.

NHL Monday Best Bet

Golden Knights +110 at Stars: The zig-zag hasn’t been as strong in this round (1-6 as it’s been even more streaky than the NBA in the current round), but we’ll take our hometown Golden Knights – who lead the series 3-2 – to close this out on the road. Even though I’m out here in the islands, I’m hearing a lot of people on the Over, but I’m not so sure about that. The Golden Knights obviously don’t want to go to a Game 7 and I’m counting on them relying on the defense that got them past the Oilers in the last round (when they were able to stay out of the penalty box). I’d lean to the Under 5.5, but I still feel VGK is the better play (Under could be in jeopardy in a late empty-net situation).

MLB Monday Best Bet

Twins First 5 Innings +110 at Astros: The Twins let me down Sunday, but I’m wheeling back with them Monday as I don’t like any other underdog on the holiday card (it doesn’t help that we have just 11 games; it’s bad enough that holiday twin bills are a thing of the distant past, but now we have 8 teams with the day off). Anyway, we’re counting on Sonny Gray (4-0, 1.82 ERA) to hold down the Houston offense while hopefully Minnesota can get enough runs vs. J.P. France (1-1, 3.43 ERA).