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03/10/2010 -
DALLAS (AP) -Centers Erick Dampier and Brendan Haywood returned to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night against the New Jersey Nets.
Dampier missed the previous 12 games with a dislocated right middle finger. Haywood sat out two games with lower back tightness.
Dallas played long stretches of zone defense and used small forward Shawn Marion at center while its two big men were sidelined.
The Mavericks ruled guard Jose Juan Barea out with an injured left ankle sustained in Monday night's 113-93 victory at Minnesota. Dallas coach Rick Carlisle doesn't expect Barea's injury to be long-term.
Dallas remains without No. 2 scorer Jason Terry, who missed his fourth consecutive game after undergoing surgery to repair facial injuries.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
<< Great West Conference Tournament Recaps
Orem, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Weiermiller scored 18 points and dished out
four assists to lead Texas-Pan American to a 56-53 victory over Utah Valley in
the quarterfinals of the inaugural Great West Conference Tournament.
Jared Maree ha
<< This Week in Auto Racing March 12 - 14
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - While all three of NASCAR's national
touring series take a break, the IZOD IndyCar Series and Formula One kick off
their 2010 seasons this weekend. IndyCar will run on the streets of Sao Paulo,
Brazil for the
<< Cardinals sign TE Becht, two others to one-year deals
Tempe, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Cardinals inked tight ends Anthony
Becht, Stephen Spach and defensive end Jeremy Clark to one-year contracts on
Wednesday.
Becht played in all 16 games for the Cards last season, including 10 s
<< Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament Recaps
Shreveport, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Allen Smith scored 16 points as the
Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions took down the Mississippi Valley State Delta
Devils, 69-66 in the first round of the Southwestern Athletic Conference
Tournam
IndyCar kicks off season with first-time trip to Brazil >>
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: IndyCar. Date: Sunday, March 14.
Race: Sao Paulo Indy 300. Site: Streets of Sao Paulo. Track: 2.6-mile, 11-turn
temporary street circuit. Start Time: 11:00 a.m. (et). Laps: 75. Miles: 195.
Television
Rams re-sign TE Fells >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Rams re-signed tight end
Daniel Fells on Wednesday.
Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Fells became a restricted free agent last Friday.
The tight end caught 21
Ravens re-sign WR Mason >>
Owings Mills, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Ravens have agreed in
principle on terms of a two-year contract with veteran wide receiver Derrick
Mason.
Mason became an unrestricted free agent after his five-year contract with t
Bobcats handle Sixers >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gerald Wallace led all scorers with 28
points on 9-of-10 shooting to push the Charlotte Bobcats past the Philadelphia
76ers, 102-87, at the Wachovia Center.
Stephen Jackson added 24 points and 10 reb
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.
Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
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