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Hornets play host to lowly WizardsBasketball Betting Lines03/31/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two teams limping to the finish line meet in the Big Easy Wednesday when the New Orleans Hornets host the woeful Washington Wizards. The Hornets won't being making a return trip to the postseason this year but are coming off one of their most impressive wins on Monday when David West scored 20 points and pulled down seven rebounds to lead a balanced attack, as New Orleans held off the reigning NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, 108-100. Rookie Marcus Thornton added 18 points for the Hornets, who improved to 2-2 on a five-game homestand that ends tonight. Fellow freshman Darren Collison donated 17 points off the bench, while Chris Paul chipped in 15 points and 13 assists for the victors. "All the players were outstanding tonight," Hornets head coach Jeff Bower said. "Being a team like that, we were aggressive and came out good early. Our defense put us in a position to push the ball and each player deserves credit for their effort." The Wizards, meanwhile, have completely fallen apart and dropped their franchise-record 16th straight game last night in Houston when Chase Budinger netted 13 of his career-best 24 points in the final quarter and hit the go- ahead bank shot with 28.3 seconds remaining, helping the Rockets beat Washington, 98-94. Andray Blatche had 31 points and 10 rebounds for the Wizards, who haven't won since February 28 at New Jersey. Mike Miller ended with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Earl Boykins sank two foul shots to put the Wizards ahead 92-90, but Kyle Lowry's runner in the lane with the shot clock about the expire tied the game with 1:26 left. After Blatche missed a jumper, Lowry was whistled for palming the ball. Washington couldn't take advantage of the turnover, however, as Blatche missed a fade- away jumper, leaving 33.5 seconds on the clock after a Houston timeout. Budinger then rose up from near the top of the key and kissed the ball off the glass to give Houston the lead. Boykins' ensuing three-pointer was off the mark and Budinger made two foul shots with 11.6 on the clock before Miller countered with a tip-in with 5.1 remaining. Lowry, though, sealed the win by making two foul shots. "Each guy tried to do it himself," Wizards coach Flip Saunders said. "The reason we played so well for the first 46 minutes is we were moving the ball, sharing the ball, cutting, not standing. All of a sudden, it got to the last three minutes, and we decided we were going to play a different way...stand around and watch. When you do that against good teams, defensive teams, they make it very difficult." Already without star guard Gilbert Arenas (suspension) and forward Josh Howard (knee), Washington learned on Tuesday that guard Randy Foye could miss the rest of the season with a torn ligament and cyst in his left wrist. With a loss tonight, the Wizards would finish March winless at 0-17. New Orleans has won three straight in the series and will be shooting for a home-and-home sweep of the set for the second straight year.
<< Blazers, Knicks set for battle in Rose City
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A Portland Trail Blazers team aiming to improve their position in the Western Conference playoff standings welcomes the New York Knicks to the Rose Garden tonight. The streaking Blazers won their third straight g
<< Celtics to face test from improved Thunder
<< Red-hot Suns try to keep rolling at expense of Nets
<< Sixers visit playoff-hopeful Bobcats
<< Cavs and Bucks clash at the "Q"
Mavericks visit Grizzlies in Southwest showdown >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Mavericks will try to inch closer to their first division title since the 2006-07 season as they pay a visit to the Memphis Grizzlies tonight at FedEx Forum. Dallas is 4 1/2 games ahead of San Antonio in the Sou
Heat begin key road trip with stop in Detroit >>
Sliding Wolves try to snap skid vs. Kings >>
Jazz take on Warriors in Salt Lake City >>
Spurs return home to face Rockets >>
March Madness odds and printable March Madness brackets With the field of 64/65 set, MySportsbook.com has the Florida Gators as the 4-1 favorite to successfully defend their National Championship. Men’s Division-1 College Basketball has not seen a team repeat as National Champions since Duke won back to back championships in ’91 & ‘92. After losing three out of four late in the season, the Gators are full of momentum as they won their last four games by an average of 18 points. Not surprisingly, right behind the Gators are the other three top seeds: Kansas 5-1, UNC 6-1, and Ohio State 7-1. Many consider Kansas to be the hottest team in the country, having won 11 straight. With Kansas, it is hard to ignore all of the early exits from the “dance” in recent years. With an impressive ACC Tournament, UNC ensured themselves the other top seed. UNC has about as much talent as any other team in the tournament but with a team that’s best players are primarily freshman and sophomores, could youth be a concern. Behind freshman sensation, Greg Oden, OSU will look to do what their football team failed to do just a few months earlier. OSU seems to have peeked at the right time, as they currently have a 17 game winning streak. Since the tournament field was expanded in 1985, there has never been an instance where all four #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four. It is obvious that each of the top seeds have the talent to make it through to Atlanta. But as everyone knows, when makes the NCAA Tournament so special are all of the spoilers and “Cinderella” stories that knock off the favorites on a daily basis. Be sure to logon to MySportsbook.com to see check out all of the early lines and “March Madness” props. Also be sure to enter the “$10,000,000 Perfect Bracket Contest”. If someone has the skills to predict every winner, they will be set for life and walk away with $10,000,000. Even if no one can cash in on the Grand Prize, with a $35,000 guaranteed prize pool and a Mazda RX-8 to the first prize winner, Sportsbook.com’s bracket is a must for all “March Madness” fans. MySportsbook.com’s odds to win the Championship and Regions:
Field 100-1 About MySportsbook.com MySportsbook.com is the largest sportsbook and casino on the planet, where millions of adult Americans bet on sports, play poker and enjoy blackjack and other casino games online in a regulated and licensed jurisdiction. Named the "Best US Sports Book" by the industry's top magazine, eGaming Review, MySportsbook.com has been leading the online gaming industry since 1996. Dwarfing its nearest competitors in the US, MySportsbook.com has been the first to achieve every significant industry milestone, from record turnover to active users to number of bets--achieving a peak of fifteen bets per second. As the US online gaming leader, the firm and it's products have been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, ESPN, Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Financial Times, USA Today and in every major newspaper in the US. To bet on March Madness games this online sportsbook accepts 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." 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. |
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