Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
02/22/2012 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joakim Noah recorded his first career triple- double with 13 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, as the Chicago Bulls cruised past the Milwaukee Bucks, 110-91.
Carlos Boozer added 20 points and seven boards for the Bulls (27-8), who head into the All-Star break on a two-game winning streak. Derrick Rose and Ronnie Brewer tallied 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Brandon Jennings ended with 20 points and five assists for the Bucks (13-20), who head into the break on a two-game slide. Ersan Ilyasova and Jon Leuer had 15 and 14 points, respectively, in defeat.
Ahead by two, 23-21, with 3:11 left in the first quarter, the Bulls ripped off six straight points to build an eight-point cushion.
Chicago shot 55 percent from the field over the first 12 minutes and took a 30-23 margin into the second.
Holding a 57-51 edge late in the first half, the Bulls went on a 7-2 spurt. Boozer's jumper gave the home team a 64-53 lead at the break.
The Bulls extended their margin to 18 in the third stanza. A Taj Gibson layup and Noah's three-point play made it a 91-73 game with 38 seconds to go. It was a 93-75 contest heading to the fourth.
Chicago led by as many as 22 in the final period.
Game Notes
The Bulls have won seven straight and 10 of the past 13 meetings with the Bucks, who have lost four straight and 12 of their last 13 trips to the Second City...Chicago guards C.J. Watson (concussion) and Richard Hamilton (thigh) missed the game...The Bulls improved to 4-1 on a six-game homestand that will wrap up on February 28 against the Hornets...The Bucks were without forwards Drew Gooden (wrist/knee) and Tobias Harris (shoulder) and guard Stephen Jackson (hamstring)...The Bulls shot 54.4 percent from the field and went 6-of-13 from beyond the arc.
<< Ferrer breezes into quarters at Copa Claro
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top seed and world No. 5 David
Ferrer easily dispatched Argentina native Facundo Bagnis on Wednesday at the
Copa Claro tennis event.
Ferrer, who was the runner-up at this event two years
<< Wichita State downs Illinois State, claims MVC crown
Normal, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joe Ragland paced four Wichita State players in
double figures with 14 points as the Shockers took down Illinois State by a
68-55 count on Wednesday to lock up the Missouri Valley Conference title.
Garrett
<< No. 10 Marquette sends Rutgers to another loss
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jae Crowder scored 27 points, Darius Johnson-
Odom had 21 and No. 10 Marquette handed Rutgers its sixth straight loss on
Wednesday night, 82-65.
Vander Blue added 10 points for the Golden Eagles (23-5, 12-3 B
<< Thunder top Celtics for 11th straight home win
Oklahoma City, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Russell Westbrook scored 31 points,
dished out six assists and pulled down five rebounds, as the Oklahoma City
Thunder held off the Boston Celtics, 119-104.
Kevin Durant added 28 points, nine bo
Bruins hang rare home regulation defeat on Blues >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brad Marchand scored twice as Boston doubled
up St. Louis, 4-2, at Scottrade Center.
Chris Kelly and Milan Lucic each posted a goal and one assist for the Bruins,
who had lost three of four coming in.
Ti
No. 6 Michigan State edges Minnesota >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Keith Appling's go-ahead free throws with
32 seconds remaining lifted No. 6 Michigan State to a 66-61 victory over
Minnesota on Wednesday.
Austin Hollins airballed a three-pointer from the right w
Packers TE Finley tweets 2-year deal >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Green Bay Packers and tight end Jermichael Finley have
agreed on a two-year deal.
Finley confirmed a report of the deal on his Twitter account Wednesday night,
saying:
"It's TRUE! Thank you so much to the Packers
Vinci out at Monterrey Open >>
Monterrey, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Italian Roberta Vinci was a
second-round loser at the $220,000 Monterrey Open on Wednesday.
Vinci fell to Russian Nina Bratchikova 7-5, 7-5 in 1 hour, 21 minutes on the
hardcourts at Sierr
NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
Get free Sports Betting lines RSS feeds from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com
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.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting