Lake City Joins Lakers Over Games

Basketball Betting Lines

The Clippers, playing their second straight game without Chris Paul, were paced by Caron Butler's 14 points. Courtney Fortson added 13 while Randy Foye chipped in 11. Blake Griffin scored 10 on 5-of-12 shooting and added 11 rebounds. LA has lost 16 straight in Salt Lake City.

 

Entering Tuesday, the Clippers had won three straight, including Monday's win over the Nets -- their first since Paul was sidelined with a strained left hamstring.

 

The advantage was 52-41 at the half and ballooned to as many as 20 in the third, leading to a fourth devoid of drama and rife with reserves. Still, the Jazz did not relent, emphasizing the win with a scintillating bench effort.

 

Game Notes

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The reigning NBA champion Dallas Mavericks hope to salvage the back-end of a two-game stop in Los Angeles when they meet a Clippers team that could be without star point guard Chris Paul for a third straight night. The Mavs dropped a heartbreaker at Staples Center on Monday when Derek Fisher knocked down a three-pointer with 3.1 seconds remaining, lifting the Lakers to a 73-70 victory over Dallas. Fisher's go-ahead shot, from the right side over Dirk Nowitzki, was the only three-pointer the Lakers made in the game.

 

Which is about how ugly much of the game was for both teams in their first meeting since Dallas swept the Lakers in last year's Western Conference semifinals.

 

Dallas was even worse. Nowitzki was 8-of-17 for 21 points, but the Mavs shot 35 percent and made only four of their 26 three-point attempts to have a five- game winning streak snapped. Jason Terry made a game-tying shot in the last 10 seconds for the Mavs.

 

"We didn't get to Derek in time. That's tough," said Mavs coach Rick Carlisle. "We had a lot of opportunities we didn't cash in. (But) we battled our butts off and I like that."

 

The Mavericks, who are in the midst of a four-game road trip that will finish with trips to Utah and New Orleans, are 2-4 as the visitor this season.

 

Entering Tuesday, the Clippers had won three straight, including Monday's win over the Nets -- their first since Paul was sidelined with a strained left hamstring.

 

The four-time All-Star will be a game-time decision tonight. Meanwhile, Carter has been ruled out by the Mavs with a sprained foot.

Bettingfootballgamble Basketball Betting Blog

<< ST. John Acquires First Half Against Percent

<< Defensive Coordinator Into Defensive Stars

<< Delaware Park Leaves Havre Down Year

<< Padres Schierholtz Disable Disable At Home

<< Blue Jays Games Name Name For Home

Rebounds In Season Losing >>

Knicks Sparks Anderson From Stops >>

Oklahoma Warriors Claim Claim With Tonight >>

Points Boston Name Name For Nuggets >>

New Contract Brest Disable Disable At Lecce >>

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.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.