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Howard, Magic take down CavsBasketball Betting Lines04/11/2010 - Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dwight Howard led all scorers with 22 points and added 13 rebounds and six blocks, as the Orlando Magic earned a 98-92 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. Jameer Nelson chipped in 17 points and eight assists, while Mickael Pietrus donated 12 points off the bench, including some clutch shooting in the fourth quarter for Orlando, which has won four straight and already locked up the Southeast title and second seed in the Eastern Conference. Delonte West ended with a team-best 21 points in a reserve role and Antawn Jamison and Mo Williams had 19 points for the Cavaliers, who have lost three straight, but already clinched the Central Division title and home court advantage throughout the playoffs. Cleveland was without superstar LeBron James and Anthony Parker, who were given the day off. With Orlando ahead 77-73 after three quarters, Anderson Varejao began the fourth with two layups and two free throws by West briefly put the Cavs in front. Pietrus got the hot hand and made three straight Orlando baskets -- two three-pointers -- but a pair of makes for Cleveland limited the Magic's lead to only a point, 85-84, with 7:37 left. The Orlando advantage swelled to 10, 98-88, after Howard's dunk with 2:22 remaining and the Magic held on the rest of the way. Jamison and Williams each scored nine points in the opening quarter to get Cleveland out to a 28-19 lead, and the Cavaliers led by as many as 16, 40-24, approaching the midpoint of the second. Orlando, though, closed with six straight points to draw within 50-46 at the half. The third quarter remained tight throughout, and with the game tied at 73 with under a minute to play, Howard's jumper and Vince Carter's layup put the Magic up heading into the fourth. Game Notes Orlando topped Cleveland in six games during last year's Eastern Conference finals...The teams split four matchups this season...Orlando will play at Indiana on Monday and host Philadelphia on Wednesday to wrap up its schedule before heading to the postseason...Williams also dished out nine assists for the Cavaliers, who shot 41 percent from the field...Zydrunas Ilgauskas had nine points and 12 boards in defeat...Orlando shot 48.1 percent from the floor, but made only 9-of-26 from three-point range...Carter ended with six points and five assists for the Magic.
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?" A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook. In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small. "Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets." But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?" Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year. This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here. Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions. In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries. No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning. And that's all any bettor can ask for. To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence. The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday night. MySportsbook.com has the Cornhuskers listed at +2500 to win the BCS National Championship odds. A nursing supervisor at the hospital said all questions about Lucky were being referred to the athletic department. The athletic department said there would be no further comment from the department or Lucky's family. A Lincoln Police spokesman said officers responded to a call at Lucky's residence 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The spokesman said he didn't know Lucky's condition at the time he was taken to the hospital. Lucky, from North Hollywood, Calif., started six games last season as a sophomore and was the team's second-leading rusher, with 728 yards and six touchdowns. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards. He averaged 19.1 yards on eight kickoff returns. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards. |
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