As I mention pretty much every week, Tuesday was spent writing my regular “Tuley’s Takes” column for Point Spread Weekly, though this was a little different with football season being over.
We took a break here in Vegas around dinnertime to check out our best bet of the day: Wake Forest + 11 at Duke. The game didn’t start so well as Duke controlled the first half, jumping out to a 14-point lead and still leading 42-33 at the end of the first half. Mike Krzyzewski wasn’t feeling good at halftime and left the rest of the game to his assistant, Jon Scheyer. Wake Forest woke up in the second half and rallied to tie the game 74-74 in the final seconds. Since we didn’t have the money line, we were cheering for anything but overtime (as we’ve lost far too many b-ball games over the years due to overtime, even a time or two when getting double digits, so we didn’t even want the possibility of that). Fortunately, Duke’s Mark Williams dunked in a missed shot with 0.4 seconds remaining in regulation that had to be reviewed to see if it was offensive goal-tending. The basket was allowed and then Wake rattled out a three-quarter court shot that would have won the game.
It was a thrilling finish, but just like the Super Bowl, we were happy just to have the dog cover the spread for us.
Let’s recap the rest of Tuesday’s betting action and then I’ll try to keep the winning ways going with a best bet or two for Wednesday.
Tuesday’s recaps
NBA: Faves went 6-1 SU on Tuesday, highlighted by the Celtics (-2 in 135-87 rout at 76ers for their 9th straight win) and the Grizzlies (-3.5 in 121-109 win at Pelicans for their 6th straight victory) also covering. The lone upset was by the Mavericks (+ 5.5 in 107-99 win at Heat). Faves/dogs split 3-3-1 ATS with the Pacers (+ 14.5) covering in a 128-119 loss at the Bucks even though it was their 7th loss in a row and the Clippers (+ 13) covering in their 103-96 loss at the Suns, who won their 6th straight. The push was by the Timberwolves (-6) in their 126-120 win vs. the Hornets. Overs went 5-2.
CBB: No. 10 Villanova (-4) covered in its 89-84 win at No. 8 Providence. No. 16 Tennessee (-1.5) covered in 76-63 win vs. No. 4 Kentucky. Penn State (+ 3.5) upset No. 19 Michigan State 62-58. No. 9 Duke (-9.5) held off Wake Forest 76-74, but did not cover.
NHL: Faves went 5-4 Tuesday with the upsets by the Stars (+ 215 in 4-1 win at Avalanche), Sabres (+ 170 in 6-3 win vs. Islanders), Capitals (+ 125 in 4-1 win at Predators) and Oilers (-105 in 5-2 win at Kings that had 2 empty-net goals by the Oilers to go Over 6.5). Overs went 6-3.
Wednesday’s Takes
Nets (+ 5.5) at Knicks: This is one of our “swagger” plays as the Nets just snapped an 11-game losing streak on Monday night by beating the Kings 109-85. I know they’re still without Kevin Durant and won’t get Ben Simmons until next week (plus Kyrie Irving can’t play with this game in New York due to COVID mandates), but the Nets got their swagger back with a little help from other newcomers like Seth Curry (23 points, 7 rebounds) and Andre Drummond (11 points, 9 rebounds). Plus, as bad as the Nets have been lately, the Knicks have lost 12 of their last 15 and shouldn’t be favored by this much.
Parlay Panthers-Hurricanes 1P Over 1.5 -150/Avalanche-Golden Knights 1P Over 1.5 -160: Let’s do an NHL First-Period Over parlay with these two games (would probably still play it if one or both games posted at Over 2 and plus-money). The Panthers are the top 1P Over team this season at 32-15 (68.1 percent), according to stats compiled by @PSUOtto on Twitter. The Avalanche and Golden Knights have consistently been among the top 1P Over teams all season and are both still over 60 percent.
Good luck today (and every day!).