I like when I hear from readers that enjoy my little intros about the Tuley’s Takes home office in North Las Vegas. These are a nod to “Late Show With David Letterman” as he would introduce his nightly Top 10 list from the home office in Sioux City, Iowa (or other cities over the years). These intros are meant to give a little peek behind the scenes of what it’s like in the day of the life of a sports betting journalist.
Thursday was rather mundane from that standpoint as I mostly did some errands around the house before having to get ready with my wife to pick up our middle school and high school children, Peyton and Maddux, from after-school band practice and play rehearsal, respectively, before taking them to my sister-in-law’s birthday dinner at Red Robin on the other side of town. I also had to prepare for a podcast on Twitter Spaces where I discussed my career from the start of my exposure to the gambling life with a trip to the racetrack in 1990 to my days at the Daily Racing Form and ESPN.com to how I landed at VSiN.com.
All in all, it ended up as a productive day, especially when we won our best bet on the 76ers + 6.5 at the Bucks as they not only covered but ended up winning outright, 123-120. I’m gonna miss the NBA during the All-Star Break as we’ve won all our best bets in the Association this past week since the Super Bowl.
Let’s recap the rest of Thursday night’s action, which ended with my flipping on the NHL Network to catch the thrilling end of the Canucks-Sharks game, and then try to find a best bet for Friday.
Thursday’s recaps
NBA: Faves went 3-2 SU and ATS on Thursday, the last day before the All-Star Break. The upsets were by the 76ers (+ 6.5, + 220 money line in 123-120 win at the Bucks) and the Wizards (+ 3.5, + 165 ML) in 117-103 win at the Nets. Overs went 4-1.
CBB: All five Top 25 teams in action won their games, but No. 17 USC (-11.5) let Washington in the back door in a 79-69 win late Thursday. Meanwhile, No. 3 Arizona (-23.5) also failed to cover in its 83-69 win vs, Oregon State. No. 13 UCLA (-8.5 vs. Washington State), No. 14 Houston (-14 vs. Central Florida) and No. 21 Murray State (-19 vs. Austin Peay) covered in their wins.
NHL: Canucks beat Sharks 5-4 in OT after Sharks tied the game with :00.6 left in regulation. Note: that was pretty exciting to watch live as I was waiting to finish my recaps on Twitter. Canucks were -120 road fave as chalk went 6-4 on Thursday. The upsets were by the Canadiens (+ 230 vs. Blues), Red Wings (+ 183 at Rangers), Senators (+ 115 at Sabres) and Blue Jackets (+ 110 at Blackhawks). Over/Unders split 5-5.
Friday’s Take
Panthers-Wild First-Period Over 1.5 -160: There are no NBA games on Friday with the start of the All-Star Break, so I’ll check out my VSiN colleague Greg Peterson’s plays and listen to see if any of our VSiN hosts have any strong college b-ball plays tonight. Otherwise, this is a prime night to take your significant other for a date night. But we still want to pay for that dinner, so let’s go with this NHL 1P Over. the Panthers are on a 14-4 run with 1P Overs and are tied with the Blue Jackets at 32-16 (66.7 percent) for the best record so far this season. The Wild is also 29-16, so they combine for 61-32 (65.6 percent). Now, the -160 I’m quoting is from Resort World in Las Vegas. I’m also seeing DraftKings has Over 1.5 -195 in the states where they’re licensed while William Hill has Over 2 + 105, so definitely shop around on this if you can. I really don’t like any of the other Friday night games for a parlay, so we’re just sticking with the straight bet.
Good luck today (and every day!).