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03/01/2010 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Smith paced a balanced scoring attack with 17 points and a season-high 18 rebounds, as the Atlanta Hawks dominated the glass to defeat the shorthanded Chicago Bulls, 116-92, at United Center.
Smith had six offensive boards, as the Hawks outrebounded the Bulls by a 63-37 margin overall. Atlanta had 22 total on the offensive side, compared to just eight for Chicago.
Jamal Crawford came off the bench to provide 21 points, while Marvin Williams had 18 with nine rebounds in the win. Al Horford added 15 points and 10 boards, while Joe Johnson had 14 points and nine rebounds in the lopsided victory, Atlanta's fourth in five games.
Derrick Rose paced Chicago with 24 points despite leaving briefly in the first half with a minor knee injury, but the Bulls couldn't avoid having a four-game home win streak snapped due to the absence of Luol Deng (knee) and Joakim Noah (foot). Brad Miller provided 15 points and seven boards, while Taj Gibson had 11 and 13 in a losing effort.
The Bulls trailed by seven to start the fourth and got as close as five several times in the opening moments, but an ensuing 9-0 Hawks spurt essentially put the game away.
Williams had seven of the nine points, including an acrobatic three-point play that had the visitors ahead, 94-79, with 5:37 to play.
Atlanta cruised to the finish line from there.
The Hawks jumped out to a 34-23 lead after one quarter, partly due to Rose's absence, and Atlanta increased its advantage to 59-43 at halftime.
The Bulls, though, made a game of it in the third, outscoring the Hawks by a 25-16 margin. Gibson scored the first five points of the period to get Chicago within 11, and a Miller jumper had the hosts within single-digits, 67-58, with five minutes left.
Atlanta pushed its advantage back up to 15 before a 10-2 Bulls burst ended the quarter. Flip Murray had four points during the stretch, including a layup in the final moments to make it 75-68 heading to the fourth.
Game Notes
Atlanta won the season series, 3-1, and has captured seven of eight against Chicago...The Bulls began a four-game homestand Monday and will also play Memphis, Dallas and Utah during the stretch...Chicago fell to 19-10 at home, while Atlanta improved to 15-14 on the road...Murray had 12 points for the Bulls, who got 10 points from Hakim Warrick...Rose banged knees with Atlanta's Mike Bibby in the first quarter and limped to the locker room before returning late in the second quarter...The Bulls never led in the game.
<< Magic beat Sixers by 21
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jameer Nelson scored 22 points and dished
out 10 assists, and seven Orlando players scored in double-figures to help the
Magic rout the 76ers, 126-105, at Wachovia Center.
Rashard Lewis and Vince Carter
<< Cavs start strong, rout Knicks
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - LeBron James scored 22 points, dished out
seven assists, and pulled down seven rebounds, as the Cleveland Cavaliers
continued their recent dominance over the New York Knicks with a 124-93 rout
at Quic
<< Thrashers acquire F Artyukhin from Anaheim
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers acquired forward Evgeny
Artyukhin from the Anaheim Ducks on Monday in exchange for defenseman Nathan
Oystrick and a conditional draft choice in 2011.
Artyukhin, who was in his first s
<< Syracuse's second half defense sparks upset of No. 7 West Virginia
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Erica Morrow scored 23 points with five
rebounds and five assists, and the Syracuse Orange used suffocating defense in
the second half to upset the seventh-ranked Mountaineers, 67-48, at the
Carrier
Roy, Blazers rally in second half to down Grizzlies >>
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Roy scored a game-high 25 points,
grabbed seven rebounds and handed out five assists, helping Portland erase a
double-digit halftime deficit en route to a 103-93 victory over Memphis.
Nicolas B
Brooks and Martin shine as Rockets blow out Raptors >>
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aaron Brooks and Kevin Martin both netted a
game-high 28 points as the Houston Rockets blew out the Toronto Raptors,
116-92, at the Toyota Center.
David Andersen added 16 points in almost 23 minute
Suns have little trouble downing Nuggets >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Amare Stoudemire poured in 19 points and pulled
down 10 rebounds, as the Phoenix Suns dominated the Denver Nuggets, 101-85, at
US Airways Center.
Grant Hill added 19 points and eight rebounds for the Suns, wh
Lidstrom's goal lifts Red Wings over Avalanche >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nicklas Lidstrom scored the go-ahead goal on the
power play midway through the third period, lifting Detroit to a 3-2 win over
Colorado in the first NHL game after the Olympic break.
It's been a whirlwind in th
The Indianapolis Colts know that winning the Super Bowl last season put a huge target on their backs, and they expect opponents to go all-out to knock them from the top of the mountain.
They’ll get their first test from the New Orleans Saints this Thursday night. The defending champs had nothing but good things to say about the New Orleans defense this past week, praising their opponents’ pass rush and run-stopping abilities.
"They play very aggressively," head coach Tony Dungy told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "They play a lot of man-to-man coverage, and they come after you. They have good pass rushers, and they're going to try to pressure us, I'm sure."
Both center Jeff Saturday and quarterback Peyton Manning gave New Orleans’ front four props, admitting keeping guys like Will Smithand Charles Grant contained would be a tall task for the offensive line.
New Orleans ranked second in total defense during the preseason at a sportsbook, allowing just under 233 yards per game. Last season, the defense finished 11th in the league after giving up 307.3 yards and 20.1 points per contest.
Not so sound on the ground
If Indianapolis' efficient offense has a weakness it has to be its running attack. The Colts one-two-punch of Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai is no longer, leaving the bulk of the carries to Addai, the second-year back out of LSU.
Former Saskatchewan Roughrider Kenton Keith was named Addai’s backup this week after beating out DeDe Dorsey for the second-string position. Indy has only three backs on the roster right now, including fullback Luke Lawton, and coach Dungy is aware of the thinness of his ground game. Sports Betting lines on the game can be found at BettingExpress.com
“We’ll continue to look. Luke Lawton’s done a good job for us too. So probably getting a third true tailback is something that we’d like to do,” Dungy told the Indiana Tribune-Star.
Last season, Addai rushed for over 1,000 yards in his rookie campaign and scored seven touchdowns on the ground.
Brees says bring it on
Opening the season on the road against the defending Super Bowl champions is not the way most teams would like to kick off their year – unless you’re the New Orleans Saints or their quarterback Drew Brees. This internet Sportsbooks had the Saints as the favorites.
Brees told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he is excited to get the regular season started and the Colts are a great challenge for him and his teammates. The 28-year-old QB, entering his second season with the Saints, is expecting a wild environment in the RCA Dome this Thursday when the franchise celebrates its 2007-2007 championship.
Brees said he sees the opening game scheduling as an honor and a testament to how well New Orleans did last season. The Saints missed facing the Colts in the Super Bowl by one game, losing to the Chicago Bearsin the NFC Championship game.
"I mean, people think we can hang with these guys," Brees told reporters. "Even if they didn't, it wouldn't matter what they thought because as a team we're very confident. We know what we can do. We're not satisfied where we finished the season last year. And we've been looking forward to this opportunity for a long time."
SportsBooks ready for a shootout
Oddsmakers are preparing for some fireworks this Thursday when the NFL season kicks off. online Sportsbooks have Thursday’s total set at a whopping 52 points, accounting for two of the league’s most explosive offenses.
“This is like must-see TV,” Saints cornerback and former Colt Jason David told the Baton Rouge Advocate. “It’s two exciting offenses with great players. You’ve got a lot of star power on offense. At any given time a big play can happen. If I was a fan, I wouldn’t miss a snap.”
New Orleans, who ranked No.1 in total offense last season, can go blow-for-blow with the Colts’ attack. Head coach Sean Payton’s offensive schemes will get even better production out of Drew Brees, Reggie Bush and receiver Marques Colston now that they’ve each had a season of playing together under their belts.
The Saints and Colts were the top two passing teams in the NFL last year, but while Indianapolis managed to put up almost 27 points per game, New Orleans struggled to capitalize on their efforts. The Saints ranked fifth in points per game.
“Yards are great,” running backDeuce McAllister told reporters, “but to be able to score more touchdowns would be important for us.”
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts US credit cards
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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