Hawks welcome Pistons to Dixie

Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The playoff bound Atlanta Hawks return to the cozy confines of Philips Arena Saturday to take on a Detroit Pistons team headed for the NBA Draft Lottery.

The Hawks salvaged the finale of their recent three-game road trip on Thursday in Washington when Jamal Crawford came off the bench to score a team-high 29 points to lead Atlanta to a tight 105-99 victory over the lowly Wizards.

Joe Johnson and Al Horford each netted 18 points for the Hawks, who were coming off losses in Miami and New York. Mike Bibby chipped in with 16 points for the victors.

"He's been fantastic all year. He's been a big part of what we do," Atlanta coach Mike Woodson said of Crawford. "We rely on him to score the ball, also play defense and help us rebound. He's made big shots for us, run our offense. He's put us in position where we are today."

The Hawks are now dead even with Boston for the third seed in the Eastern Conference and will try and improve on their stellar 25-7 home record tonight.

The Pistons, meanwhile, are also coming off a win over Washington in their most recent affair on Friday night. Will Bynum provided a spark with a career- best 20 assists in that one, helping Detroit beat the Wizards for a sixth straight time, 101-87, at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

Tayshaun Prince, Jonas Jerebko and Richard Hamilton all scored 18 to pace the Pistons. The three combined to shoot 24-of-45 for the game.

Ben Gordon chipped in 17 off the bench and Jason Maxiell tallied 12 points and 10 boards for the Pistons, who recorded just their second win in nine games.

"I thought Will Bynum did a great job of getting 20 assists," said Pistons coach John Kuester. "I think he really did a nice job of getting us into our offense."

Bynum was in the starting lineup for Rodney Stuckey, who missed his third straight game last night after collapsing on the bench during a loss in Cleveland on March 5. Extensive cardiac tests on Wednesday provided some good news and Stuckey, who is averaging a career-best 17.1 points per game, has been allowed to resume exercising but there is no timetable for his return to the floor.

Detroit snapped a three-game series losing streak with a 94-88 win in Auburn Hills back in November.

Wwwthegreek Basketball Betting News

<< Blackhawks visit Flyers in afternoon clash
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - One of the top teams in the Western Conference will head to the East Coast today as the Chicago Blackhawks visit the Philadelphia Flyers for an afternoon battle at Wachovia Center. The Blackhawks have 93 points on the year

<< Panthers shoot for rare victory over Sharks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Florida needs all the victories it can muster from now until the end of the season to even have a chance at making the playoffs. The Panthers could have a tough time getting a win today, when they visit the mighty San Jose Sh

<< Leach faces James in Texas Tech lawsuit deposition
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -Mike Leach is sitting across from his accuser as Craig James gives sworn testimony in the former coach's lawsuit against Texas Tech.James, whose complaint of mistreatment of his son led to Leach's firing, declined to comment Sat

<< UNLV knocks off BYU to reach Mountain West title game
Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tre'Von Willis finished with 18 points and made critical free throws down the stretch, as UNLV upended No. 14 BYU, 70-66, to reach the championship game of the Mountain West Conference Tournament. Willis

<< McDonald plays role of sage for young Blue Jays
DUNEDIN, Fla. (AP) -Becoming a coach isn't on John McDonald's radar just yet, but while he's playing he enjoys being a mentor to his fellow Toronto Blue Jays infielders.``I would hope the younger players would use a player like me as a source of kno

Surging Magic continue push towards postseason, visit Wizards >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The lowly Washington Wizards will continue playing out the string tonight when they host Eastern Conference power Orlando. The Wizards lost their sixth straight game last night in Auburn Hills when Will Bynum provided a sp

Nuggets press on without Karl in Memphis >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets continue their push to the postseason without head coach George Karl tonight against a desperate Memphis Grizzlies team. The Nuggets played without Karl, who is undergoing radiation and chemotherapy to

Spurs shoot for 16th straight win over Clippers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There are quite a few rivalries in the NBA but don't count the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers among them. A rivalry generally contains a little give-and-take or back-and-forth. When the Spurs and Clippers get t

Mavs aim to push win streak to 14 vs. Knicks >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The red-hot Dallas Mavericks will try to stretch their season-high winning streak to 14 games tonight when they resume a four-game homestand against the woeful New York Knicks. Dallas kept its longest winning streak of the

Raptors resume road trip in Oakland vs. Warriors >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Raptors haven't been playing like a team headed towards the postseason and will resume a four-game road trip Saturday night against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland. Toronto is currently eighth in the Easte

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.