Tuesday was a productive day in the Tuley’s Takes home office as we wrote the weekly version of this column for Point Spread Weekly to catch up readers on the spring sports we continue to cover (NBA, NHL, MLB and USFL) as we head into the summer vacation season.
I mentioned that we’ll be taking next week off in PSW, though we’ll continue here in our daily version of “Tuley’s Takes Today” through at least the end of the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals.
We’re happy to get the hockey and pro basketball playoffs back the next few days as we’ve been in a slump recently with our Best Bets. We miss the days when we had NBA and NHL on a nightly basis and had more games to choose from as we hit better than 60 percent from mid-February through mid-May (three whole months) with our top plays of the day. Heck, we also had a mini-run of 8-1 ATS from May 27 through June 4.
We lost our Best Bet on Tuesday with the Brewers + 135 at Mets as they were shut out 4-0. We also lost our secondary plays on the Rays at the Yankees (a 2-0 loss) and the Angels (another 2-0 loss). As you can see, we had some good pitching from our dogs but somehow found three teams that combined for zero runs on the night. Ouch!
Let’s recap the rest of Tuesday’s betting action and welcome back hockey to the betting menu as we try to get back on the winning track.
Tuesday’s recaps
MLB: Braves (-275) beat the Nationals 10-6 on Tuesday night for their 13th straight win as faves went 13-3 with the only upsets by the Orioles (+ 190 in 6-5 win at Blue Jays), Marlins (+ 131 in 11-9 win at Phillies) and Reds (+ 105 in 5-3 win at the Diamondbacks in 12 innings). Home/road teams split 8-8. Unders went 11-5.
More MLB: Faves lead 556-354 SU (61.1 percent) on the season with 17 games closing pick-'em (faves usually win around 59 percent, so faves still well ahead of that pace). Home teams lead just 479-448 (51.7 percent, but usually closer to 54 percent) Unders improved to 456-426-43 (51.7 percent).
NHL: We haven't had an NHL playoff game since Saturday, but with the Stanley Cup Finals starting on Wednesday, let’s post the NHL betting trends. Faves finished 8-2 in the conference finals round and now lead 55-28 overall. Home teams went 7-3 in the round and now are 51-32 overall. Unders went 7-3 in the round (5-1 in the Lightning-Rangers series), while Overs still lead 43-38-2 (53.1 percent) overall.
NBA: The Association is also on a three-day break, but here’s the betting stats heading into Thursday’s Game 6. Faves lead 3-2 SU and ATS so far in the Finals and lead 57-29 SU and 50-36 ATS (58.1 percent) overall. Home teams also lead 3-2 SU and ATS in this series, 52-34 SU and 45-41 ATS (52.3 percent) overall. The zig-zig dropped to 3-1 ATS in this round with the Celtics’ non-cover in Game 5 after the zig-zag won the first time in this series, dipping to 40-31 ATS (56.3 percent) overall. Unders lead 3-2 in Finals, 51-35 (59.3 percent) overall.
Wednesday’s Takes
Lightning + 155 series price vs. Avalanche: I gave this out on “The Lookahead” on Sunday night and already posted in this column here on Monday and Tuesday. We’re not sure if the Avalanche will have rest of rust after the long layoff, but we’re counting on the two-time defending champs to steal at least one of the two first two games (Wednesday and Saturday) in Colorado behind the goaltending of Andrei Vasilevskiy. This won’t cash on Wednesday, but I guess I should add the Lightning + 140 in Game 1 as our top play of the day for record-keeping purposes.
MLB dogs: As I alluded to in the intro (and in the recap section), favorites continue to make it tough to find live dogs in MLB each day. Wednesday doesn’t look too promising as it should again be pretty chalky, but it looks like our best chances are with the Mariners + 120 vs. the Twins and Padres + 105 at the Cubs.
Good luck today (and every day!).