Monday was a roller-coaster of a day for our bets here in the Tuley’s Takes home office.
Starting with the good news at the end of the day, we won with our best bet on the Knicks + 3.5 at the Kings to improve to 18-4-1 ATS with our top best bet the past 23 days. That was a roller-coaster ride in itself as the Knicks trailed 63-48 at halftime and by as many as 20 points, but then exploded for 44 points in the third quarter to take the lead and pulled away to easily cover in 131-115 victory.
Returning to earlier in the night, our secondary best bet on the Rockets + 16 looked pretty good as the Rockets stuck around with the Heat, but Miami gradually extended its lead (we’re not calling it a Bad Beat) as the Rockets also trailed by 20 points late) and ended up covering vs. the closing line of -16.5, though we hope readers were able to get + 17 for a push on the last-second 3-pointer. We also didn’t fare as well with our NHL First-Period Over 1.5 plays as we went 1-2 on those.
Unfortunately, I ended up with an overall losing day despite winning my top play, which was especially frustrating as there were several other dogs in college and pro basketball that I missed. But it was a rare losing day over the past three-plus weeks. As Jimmy Vaccaro says, “it’s a tough racket,” so we’ll take it in stride and move on.
Let’s recap the rest of the major sports on Monday, and then take a look at Tuesday’s card with the ACC and Big East starting their conference tournaments, though our top Best Bet comes elsewhere.
Monday’s recaps
NBA: Faves went 5-3 SU but just 4-4 ATS as the Nuggets (-8) failed to cover in 131-124 win vs. the Warriors. The upsets were by the Pistons (+ 7.5 vs. Hawks), Mavericks (+ 1 vs. Jazz) and Knicks (+ 4 at Kings). Spurs (-6.5) and Heat (-16.5) had 0.5-point covers. Overs/Unders also split 4-4.
CBB: Chattanooga beat Furman 64-63 in OT to win the Southern Conference and automatic NCAA bid on 3-point buzzer-beater, but did NOT cover as 2-point favorite. No. 1 Gonzaga (-14.5) beat San Francisco 81-71 in the West Coast Conference semifinals., but also didn’t cover.
NHL: Faves went 4-1 Monday with the lone upset by the Kings (+ 160 in 3-2 win at the Bruins). Over/Unders went 2-2-1 with the push in the Panthers' 6-1 rout of the Sabres as the betting total was set high at 7 goals..
Tuesday’s Take
Wagner + 4 vs. Bryant: This is for the Northeast Conference conference tournament title and the one-bid league’s automatic NCAA bid. Wagner is 14-10-1 ATS with its games that were on the betting boards. In addition, dogs are 13-2 ATS with 11 outright upsets in the last 15 Northeast Conference title games. These teams split their regular-season meetings, so even though Bryant was the No. 1 seed, it’s fitting that this comes down to the title game. Wagner has also gotten hot at the right time with six straight games of scoring at least 70 points. I have this as a coin-flip, so the points are a bonus. The 4-point spread is the most common spread out there as of late Monday night, but a few books are at 4.5 (including Circa Sports and BetMGM in Nevada), so shop around for the best line.
Good luck today (and every day!).