Saturday Best Bets, Friday Recaps
Friday was a pretty frustrating day in the Tuley’s Takes home office
For starters, we were going through withdrawals after a full 15-game MLB slate on Thursday’s Opening Day with a mere 5 games on Friday, and none before 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. here in Vegas. We’re in the midst of the race for playoff spots in the NBA and NHL, yet the night’s biggest highlights were in the NCAA Women’s Final Four (recaps below, led by Iowa’s upset of No. 1 South Carolina). Unfortunately, I didn’t bet Iowa and Caitlin Clark, fearing that she wouldn’t be able to pull the upset as a one-woman show, but she did. Even more unfortunately, my actual bets didn’t fare as well. I lost my top play on the Clippers +6.5 at the Grizzlies in a 108-94 loss. It didn’t start so bad with the Clippers jumping out to a 34-21 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Grizzlies rebounded to grab a 55-51 lead by halftime and then pulled away in the third quarter. I also lost an NHL First-Period Over play as the Canucks only led the Flames 1-0 after the opening 20 minutes. The Flames were 0-for-3 on power plays in the first period and then both teams seemed to flaunt it in my face by scoring 3 goals apiece in the second period. The only consolation is I only lost 1 unit as I went with the Over 2 +125 in this game instead of laying around -155 on Over 1.5 (but both lost regardless). I was happy that I passed on the Arlington Renegades +5 as they lost 24-15 to the Seattle Sea Dragons, but I still lost as I took Under 37.5. All in all, a very frustrating day. Let’s recap the rest of Friday’s betting action and try to do better on Saturday. We’re encouraged with the return of NCAA men’s college basketball with the Final Four as we’re 10-5 ATS (66.7%) this postseason, including winning our last three bets with San Diego State First-Half Under 62.5 and +2 in last Sunday’s win vs. Creighton and North Texas +2 vs. UAB in the NIT Championship Game on Thursday.Friday Recaps
NBA: Faves went 10-3 SU on Friday, but dogs led 7-6 ATS as the Jazz (+13 at Celtics), Pistons (+6.5 at Rockets), Spurs (+18 at Warriors) and Nuggets (+13 at Suns) all covered in losses. The upsets were by the Knicks (+3.5 at Cavaliers), Pacers (+6 vs. Thunder) and Nets (+1.5 vs. Hawks). Home teams went 8-5 SU but road teams led 9-4 ATS (all 4 dogs that covered in losses were on the road). Overs went 7-5-1 with push in ORL-WAS (225).
More NBA: On the season, favorites improved to 760-384 SU with 16 games closing pick-'em, but dogs retook the lead at 560-559-25 ATS. Home teams still lead 677-483 SU and 582-555-23 ATS (51.2%). In totals wagering, Overs still hold slim lead at 577-565-18 (50.5%).