Points Adds Celtics Of Losing

Basketball Betting Lines

The Nuggets, who are in the midst of a five-game road trip, are 3-3 away from home this season.

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - You have to figure the loss of All-Star big man Al Horford will eventually catch up to the Atlanta Hawks. So far, however, Atlanta has kept its head above water and will try to finish a four-game homestand in perfect fashion when they host Jamal Crawford and the Portland Trail Blazers tonight at Philips Arena.

 

Crawford, traditionally one of the NBA's top sixth men, averaged 16.1 points for the Hawks over the previous two seasons before signing with the Blazers as a free agent. The guard, who is making his first trip back to the ATL, is scoring at a lesser clip this season (12.0 ppg) and has been struggling recently, netting just 21 points in his last three games.

 

"Sure it was ugly but we needed a win and we'll take it. We know we can play better and we know we'll have to play better, but we're happy with the win," Blazers head coach Nate McMillan said.

 

Veteran Portland center Marcus Camby is likely to miss a third straight game tonight with a sprained left ankle.

 

Joe Johnson finished with 27 points and six assists for the Hawks, who have won three in a row and six of seven overall.

 

Their last three victories, against admittedly inferior competition in Charlotte, Minnesota and the Raptors, have come despite the fact they've played without Horford, who will be out for the next three to four months because of torn pec suffered last week.

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince has scored 20 points in back-to-back contests but it hasn't been enough to lift his team to victory. Perhaps a third time will be a charm when Detroit takes on the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight at Target Center. Prince is averaging 10.5 points this season and has scored in double figures over the last four games. He delivered his second straight 20-point effort in Tuesday's 97-80 loss at Houston, while Ben Gordon and Rodney Stuckey added 18 and 16 points, respectively, in defeat.

 

Prince posted two steals for 400 in his career and needs one block for 400. Greg Monroe had only four points and grabbed a team-best 11 rebounds. The Pistons, who are last in the Central Division, have lost eight of their last nine games and fell to 1-6 as the visitor this season. They are averaging a league-low 85.0 points per game and have one of the worst records in the NBA at 3-11.

 

Love tied Hall of Famer and former Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon for the NBA's longest double-double streak to start a season (1992-93) with 33 points and 11 boards in Monday's 99-86 win versus Sacramento. Luke Ridnour added a season-high 25 points and Wayne Ellington scored 15 points off the bench for the Timberwolves, who snapped a three-game home losing streak and improved to 3-5 in the Twin Cities.

 

Minnesota swept the home-and-home series with Detroit a year ago but has lost six of the past nine matchups with the Pistons.

 

Jermaine O'Neal had 12 points and 11 boards in the setback, while Rajon Rondo ended with 12 points, nine rebounds and nine assists for the Celtics, who are mired in their longest losing streak since a seven-game drought back in April of the 2006-07 campaign.

 

"From every win you can take some positives and from losses you can take some positives," Pierce said. "I think I like where we are headed, there are just little things that are really killing us; the (19) turnovers, obviously. If we can just clean that up, if we can keep teams out of transition and control that a little bit better, we'll be great."

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.