By Dan Behringer for LVSportsBiz.com
For fans and bettors following the Las Vegas Aces, last Tuesday will forever be remembered as the night the Sky fell in.
Leading the Chicago Sky 41-18 after a remarkable first-quarter performance, the Aces saw their lead slowly evaporate like a shallow pool of water on a blazing hot desert day.
When the buzzer sounded, the Aces had lost to the Sky, 104-95.
And bettors, who were laying 8.5 points on the Aces, could only crumple up their tickets and loft them to the trash can or watch the numbers in their digital accounts blink and head south.
“They kicked our (fill in in the blank),” coach Becky Hammon told the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the game.
The Sky’s comeback was the largest in WNBA history.
And the Aces, who were 9-3 ATS at one point, fell to 9-7 against the spread. The betting line is an amazing equalizer.
That set the stage for Saturday’s game vs. the Washington Mystics. An early line on the game opened at Aces -8.5. It moved to -9.5 before tipoff at many shops.
This time, there was no avenging the loss. The Aces fell behind in the second quarter and trailed at halftime, 46-40. They rallied to take the Mystics to overtime but eventually lost, 87-86.
It was the first time this season they lost consecutive games.
The Aces, 13-4 in the win column but now a humble 9-8 ATS, face a short turnaround and will be at the Los Angeles Sparks on Monday Night. After opening at Aces -6.5, the line has moved to Aces -8.5.
Elsewhere:
— Stanley Cup finally decided: A few handicappers thought the Stanley Cup Final would end on Friday in Colorado with the Avalanche winning Game 5 at home as heavy favorites. They were wrong.
But on Sunday, the Avalanche finally delivered the goods, winning, 2-1, on Tampa Bay’s home ice. They were roughly -118 favorites.
“That’s 20-plus years of just dreaming, wanting and working for it,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog told the Denver Post.
No futures odds yet for the 2022-23 season, but both Cup Final teams will be among those with the shortest odds. We’ll predict the Vegas Golden Knights will be in the +800 to +900 range for next season.
— Still on top in June: The New York Yankees are still atop the rankings at TeamRankings.com. They have a 53-20, a 72.6 win percentage and their average margin of victory is 2 runs. They are nearly 10 percentage points above the next highest-ranked team, the New York Mets who own a 63.5 win percentage.
“I’ve been saying it for years, it doesn’t matter what the score is, what’s happened the [day] before in the series. Every time we get up there we have a chance to win a ballgame,” Yankees slugger Aaron Judge told the New York Post after his three-run walk-off home run capped a comeback 6-3 win over the Houstons Astros on Sunday.
The Yankees went off about a -180 favorite. But to reflect a nearly 75 percent win percentage, the betting line would have to average nearly -300. And very few of the Yankees games go off that high.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros and San Diego Padres, respectively round out the top five. The Oakland A’s are solidly last at 32-49 and a 33.8 win percentage. They are losing games by an average margin of 1.4 runs.
— NFL countdown: There is only a little more than a month until the Las Vegas Raiders and new coach Josh McDaniels take on the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Hall of Fame game at Canton, Ohio. The line has held steady at Raiders -1.5 with the total at 33.5. (Amateur tip: We like under.)
If you like the silver-and-black to hoist the Lombardi Trophy after Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12, you can find them at anywhere from +3300 to +4000, according to a roundup of betting sites at Covers.com.
The Buffalo Bills generally have the shortest odds, in the +600 to +700 range. At the opposite end, the Houston Texans are as high as +30000. The defending champion Los Angeles Rams are in the +1000 to +1100 range.
— Laugher of the week: Bad teams can score runs. The Arizona Diamondbacks rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-7 on Sunday. Bettors who jumped on over 8 for the game saw the total eclipse that number by 10 runs. The teams, neither of which have a snowball’s chance to make the playoffs, combined for 21 base hits in the game.
“The key blow for me was Daulton Varsho’s three-run homer,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told The Associated Press. “It really gave us a big cushion and broke this game open.”
But bettors cashing those over tickets just smiled. And laughed.
Dan Behringer is a longtime Las Vegan. Follow posts at doublegutshot.com. On Twitter, @DanBehringer221.