Monday NHL Best Bet, Sunday Recaps
Sunday had a surreal feel in the Tuley’s Takes home office as we passed the halfway point between the NFL Conference Championship Games and the Super Bowl.
We agreed that the NFL had to do something about its All-Star Weekend as it had turned into a joke, but I’m not sure the revised “Pro Bowl Games” was the answer. I understand it was being pushed as “entertainment” but I didn’t think it very entertaining at all and couldn’t stand to watch more than 5 minutes at a time. I opted instead to watch pro and college basketball, plus my wife was watching “Hunger Games” movies in our living room and I also found myself watching my DVR with a rerun of “Saturday Night Live” and the 1979 movie “10” starring Dudley Moore and Bo Derek, who used to follow my @ViewFromVegas Twitter account when I used to write more about the sport (Bo is a big fan of the ponies and a member of the California Horse Racing Board). Maybe I’m going through a midlife crisis like Moore’s George Webber character, but I prefer my sports to include actual sports instead of whatever it was that the “Pro Bowl Games” was pushing. I mean, I like the Manning Brothers, but it’s gone too far when their contrived sibling rivalry is the most competitive aspect of the program.
It didn’t help my state of mind that I lost my Best Bet of the day with the Pacers +4.5 as they were blown out 122-103 by the Cavaliers (and it wasn’t that close). At least the Pelicans were bet to 2-point home dogs and blew out the Kings 136-104 to salvage the day. I had wanted to use that as my top play as the Pelicans were a full-fledged “swagger play” after snapping their 10-game losing streak on Saturday while the Pacers were a mini-swagger play after snapping a 4-game win streak on Friday (I usually require a 6-game streak with these plays), but the Pelicans were favored when I wrote this column the night before.
It pays to pay attention, and I’d like to also give a shout-out to reader Jake B., who found an anti-swagger play that I missed in college basketball when he used a note he saw in VSiN’s “CBB Sharp Report” about Saint Louis having its six-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday and faded the Billikens on Saturday with VCU. I felt proud as I subscribe to the “give the man a fish and he eats for the day, but teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime” theory (though I call it “give a man a steak and he eats for a day, teach a man to bet and he eats steak for a lifetime”) Let’s recap the reset of Sunday’s action, and look for some better Best Bets on Monday. Then, as has been our custom here, we’ll rerun our NFL “takes” column from Wednesday with our early Super Bowl bets including some related props.Sunday Recaps
CBB: No. 3 Houston was the only Top 25 team in action on Sunday and pulled away in the 2nd half to beat Temple 81-65. The ViewFromVegas is the Cougars also ended up covering after closing as 10.5-point road favorites (game went Over the betting total of 131.5 points).
NBA: Underdogs went 4-2 SU and ATS on Sunday with upsets by the Knicks (+4.5 in 108-97 win vs. 76ers) Magic (+2 in 119-113 win at Hornets), Pelicans (+2 in 136-104 win vs. Kings) and Raptors (+1.5 in 106-103 win at Grizzlies). Home/road teams split 3-3 SU and ATS. Unders led 4-2.