Saturday Best Bets, Friday recaps
Friday was far from ordinary for yours truly. Oh, it included the usual writing, editing and handicapping duties in the Tuley’s Takes home office, but also took a walk on the wild side as I took my wife and theater-major daughter Peyton to the gender-bending “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” musical at the Majestic Repertory Theatre in the Las Vegas art district.
After I raised my hands and cheered when Hedwig asked “Are there any sugar daddies in the house?,” She pointed at me and shouted: “No, you’re not. You’re in the cheap seats!” Ouch! Talk about emasculating! But – and sports bettors will understand this – it still wasn’t as painful as losing my Best Bet of the night on Senators-Penguins 1P Over 1.5 -155/Avalanche-Canucks 1P Over 1.5 -180. In an early game, the Penguins came through by winning their first period 2-0 vs. the Senators, but then the Avalanche only led the Canucks 1-0 after 20 minutes to lose my wager as I was checking the scores during the pre-show. Regardless, we’re still a very respectable 4-3 with these plays (especially since they’re plus-money dogs with the way we play them in parlays) for a net profit of 3.94 units. Note: the individual plays are 11-3 picks for those willing to lay around an average of -160, so you’d be up more than 6 units if playing them, ahem, straight.
Let’s recap the rest of Friday’s (full-game) action and then give our Saturday Best Bet in the NFL Divisional Playoffs, plus another NHL First-Period Over play. And then, as has become our custom here, we’ll rerun our Wednesday column in which we give our “takes” on the weekend’s NFL playoff schedule with updates based on the current lines.
Friday Recaps
NBA: Faves went 4-4 SU with Pelicans-Magic closing pick-'em, but dogs led 5-2-1 ATS with push in Kings (-5) 118-113 win vs. Thunder. The upsets were by the Lakers (+6.5 in 122-121 win vs. Grizzlies, who had 11-game win streak snapped), Warriors (+10.5 at Cavaliers), Mavericks (+2 vs. Heat) and Nets (+4.5 at Jazz). Spurs (+7.5) covered in 131-126 loss vs. Clippers. Home teams 6-3 SU and 7-1-1 ATS. Overs led 5-4.