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Welcome to the free sports betting tips for Monday, May 16th, 2016.
I’ve not seen a crazier weekend of sport for a long, long time. Seriously. In the Spanish Grand Prix, Max Verstappen became the youngest winner of a Grand Prix, but it was, in all honesty, down to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg taking each other out in the first lap. Needless to say, we’re not going to have heard the last of that. Then, at around 2:40pm, we got word that the Manchester United versus Bournemouth game was postponed due to a bomb scare. Of course, we’re now finding out that it was a leftover from an anti-terrorism training exercise at the Trafford Centre, but still, that could have been a lot worse. Then we get to the final EPL fixtures, and while Manchester City virtually secured 4th place, barring an cricket score win for Manchester United in their rearranged game, Tottenham blew second place in spectacular fashion. Yes, going to St James’ Park to play the already Championship bound Newcastle United, Spurs just needed to put in one more decent performance to lock-up their best finish in an eternity in the English Premiership. Should be easy enough, right? Well, no. The fact Newcastle won 5-1 with 10-men sums up the end to the EPL season that Spurs have had. Arsenal’s win over Aston Villa gave the Gunners a probably-not-deserved 2nd place yet again, although questions are being asked about Arsene Wenger still. We also had Celtic putting 7 goals past Motherwell, and Edinburgh City condemned East Stirling to the Lowland Football league after winning their two-leg play off 2-1 on aggregate with a late penalty. It’s a great achievement for Edinburgh City, as they have gained entry to the Scottish Football League for the first time in the club’s history.
And then, of course, we had the Raptors wrap up the series 4-3 in convincing fashion over the Heat last night. It was a dominant performance from Totonto, and Miami just didn’t look like they had any fight left. And in NHL’s Western Conference Final Game 1 last night, the Blues got past the Sharks 2-1 in less-than- convincing fashion. St Louis have Brian Elliott to thank for last night’s win, and he’s going to have to play like that for the rest of the series to keep the Blues in front.
Now, we’ve got more playoff action in the NBA and NHL tonight, so let’s get to the free sports betting tips for May 16th, 2016.
NBA Betting Tips
Game 1 of the Western Conference Final sees Golden State take on the somewhat surprising package of Oklahoma City. We ‘experts’ were predicting another Warriors versus Spurs Western Conference Final, but time has caught up with San Antonio, and the more exciting Thunder team did the job well. Now we have a match-up that looks exciting on paper.
Seriously, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on the court at the same time all in great form has the potential to make this series unforgettable. Sure, the Warriors seem to have the edge over the Thunder looking at their regular season matches, but the Thunder have timed their run to perfection at the end of the season, and it might take more than a Stephen Curry half-court special to get the Warriors one step closer to back-to-back NBA championships.
The line for tonight’s game is -7.5 for the Warriors, and I think that’s about right. There’s no real edge to be had there, purely thanks to the home form of the Warriors. However, over 223.5 points looks the value play here. We know what both sides can do in terms of 3-pointers, and we know how open this will be, having looked at their previous meetings this season. The fact the Warriors shipped 121 points to Portland last time out shows what we know, the Warriors give up points to good teams, but they just seem to out-scored them. The Thunder put 113 on the Spurs in the final game of the series, so I’m expecting more of the same, especially after both teams have had a few days to rest before Game 1.
NHL Betting Tips
Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final tonight, and the Lightning come into it with a 1-0 lead in the series, after winning Friday night’s Game 1 3-1. What’s interesting here is that the Penguins are around -200 to tie the series up tonight, and that just looks terrible to me. Sure, Ben Bishop is probably not fit, but would you be taking -200 on the Penguins? Of course not. The value play here is definitely Tampa Bay Lightning to win, whether it be in overtime, a shootout, or in regulation, it’s really the sensible play here, based on odds alone at almost +200.
