Slumping Bobcats to make stop in Memphis
Basketball Betting Lines
02/26/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Charlotte Bobcats will try to avoid posting their longest losing streak in three months as they take on the Memphis Grizzlies, who will try to halt a five-game home skid this evening at FedExForum.
Since a big victory over powerful Cleveland last Friday, Charlotte has lost the first three contests of a four-game road trip and will try to avoid dropping four straight for the first time since a season-worst seven-game slide from November 7-20.
The Bobcats have picked up setbacks in Milwaukee, Los Angeles versus the Clippers and Utah, which posted a 102-93 win over Charlotte on Wednesday night. The Bobcats led at 11 by halftime but were outscored by the Jazz, 31-16, in the third.
"They wanted it more than we did," Gerald Wallace said. "They wanted it more as a team. They won every stat that doesn't show up on the stat sheets. It just seemed like everything went their way."
Wallace had 27 points and eight rebounds for the Bobcats, who are 7-22 on the road this year as compared to 20-7 at home. Those struggles on the road have kept Charlotte on the playoff bubble, as it trails Miami by a game for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
However, Tyrus Thomas continued his resurgence since being acquired by Charlotte from Chicago. The fourth overall pick of the 2006 draft ended with 20 points, one off his season high set back on December 26, and is averaging 12.8 points and 7.5 rebounds in four games with the Bobcats.
Charlotte did play without centers Tyson Chandler (left ankle) and Nazr Mohammed (back), and both are questionable for tonight.
The Bobcats will try to end their road woes tonight versus the Grizzlies, who have lost five straight at home. Memphis has fallen to 18-11 as the host and hasn't won at FedExForum since February 1 versus the Lakers.
Memphis, 3 1/2 games back of a playoff spot, is coming off a 99-94 victory at Washington on Wednesday, getting 22 points and nine rebounds out of Zach Randolph. O.J. Mayo had 17 points, including nine during a game-changing 23-8 run to begin the fourth quarter, as the Grizzlies have won three of five since a five-game losing streak.
"When O.J. got hot at the beginning of the fourth quarter, that picked us up," said Rudy Gay, who along with Marc Gasol, finished with 20 points and seven rebounds.
Mayo nearly guided his team to a victory over Charlotte back on January 9 when he hit a game-tying three-point shot with 8.8 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but Wallace tipped in a Raymond Felton miss just before the final buzzer to give the Bobcats an 89-87 home victory.
The win was Charlotte's third straight in the series and fourth in its last five meetings with Memphis, which had won its first six meetings with the Bobcats when Charlotte entered the league in 2004-05.
Charlotte also lost its first four trips to Memphis before securing a win there on December 19 of last season.
The Bobcats won't have to worry about facing 2009 second-overall pick Hasheem Thabeet tonight, as the UConn product was assigned to the NBA Development League on Thursday. Thabeet became the highest drafted player to ever be sent to the D-League after averaging just 2.5 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.16 blocks in 50 games. The 7-foot-3 center was averaging just over 10 minutes of action per contest.
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Royals agree to terms with OF Maier >>
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Super Bowl XLIII Betting - Super Bowl 2009
Super Bowl 2009, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.Let’s take a look at the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds and the betting line and figure out where they’ve been and where they are going to go.
MySportsbook.com put up the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds late on Sunday night with the Pittsburgh Steelers favored by 6.5 points and a total betting line at 47.5 points.
Since then, however, the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds have seen a good deal of movement and you’ll want to be on top of where they are likely to move to make sure you get the best line value for the big game.
Since opening, the Super Bowl 2009 betting lines went to Steelers -7 in the span of roughly 3 hours but were quickly bought back down just minutes later to 6.5 again.
After that is took about 5-6 more hours before the betting line went back to -7 where it has sat for a while now and is likely to remain. The opening betting total of 47.5 was bet down right after the line became available and went to 47 within minutes.
Roughly a day later it has been bet even further down to the 46.5 tally it currently is set at.
Roughly 60% of gamblers seem to be on the Cardinals here so the point spread will be bet down and a 7.5 would not last very long at all with many taking the early 6.5 in hopes of finding a potential middle in the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds.
If you like Arizona and see a 7.5, I’d take it as soon as possible because it’s unlikely to last. For Pittsburgh backers, the -7 might be the best you’ll be able to find but a 6.5 is definitely possible close to game time.
Regarding the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds for the total, most tracked gamblers are already on the over and with those who took the under 47.5 already securing a middle on the over 46.5, the only way I see it moving is back up to 47 so if you like the over, I’d recommend betting now.
Get free Super Bowl XLIII Betting from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online Super Bowl betting with credit cards
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."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
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.
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