Evans' triple-double leads Kings over Raptors

Basketball Betting Lines

03/11/2010 - Sacramento, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tyreke Evans logged his first career triple- double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and as many assists, as Sacramento cruised to a 113-90 win over a struggling Toronto Raptors club.

Beno Udrih led all scorers with 24 points, while Donte Greene and Carl Landry chipped in 15 points apiece for the Kings, who put the brakes on a three-game losing streak.

"Coach told me that he wanted me to get it (a triple-double). He kept telling me to find people and he said I had a limited amount of time too, so I was trying to get it as fast as I could," said Evans.

Andrea Bargnani had 20 points and six rebounds for the Raptors, who have dropped three in a row and seven of eight games overall. Chris Bosh, Jarrett Jack and DeMar DeRozan each scored 14 points.

Toronto held a slim 25-24 edge after 12 minutes of play and was up 45-40 at halftime after the Kings produced a paltry 16 points in the second.

Sacramento more than made up for the effort with a whopping 43 points in the third, doubling up Toronto's 23 points and netting an 83-68 lead going into the final period.

It started with a 12-0 run out of the break, and Evans' jumper to cap things had the Kings ahead 52-45. Evans sank two at the line to increase the lead to 10 with 4 1/2 minutes left and the hosts ended on an 11-4 run to build momentum heading to the final period.

"I think we got really selfish. We had guys coming down and taking shots and other guys are not happy that they don't touch the ball. We miss the shot and they (Sacramento) get the rebound and then fastbreak points," said Toronto head coach Jay Triano.

Omri Casspi put in back-to-back baskets less than two minutes into the fourth for an 89-70 game and a quick six-point Kings burst at the halfway point took the margin to 23 on a Landry jumper.

Sacramento's lead reached 26 down the stretch.

"It was a good job by Carl (Landry) and Jason (Thompson). They played (Chris) Bosh really well. I think we got the win because they got the stops tonight and we were able to get our fastbreak points," Evans added.

Game Notes

Udrih added eight assists and Francisco Garcia added 12 points to the win...Sacramento shot 50.5 percent from the floor...The Raptors shot 43.9 percent and got 10 points from Jose Calderon.

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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."

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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