 |
 Basketball Betting |
 |
||||
|
 |
||||
|
||||
Raptors make a stop in New JerseyBasketball Betting Lines03/20/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Raptors are clinging to the eighth and final postseason spot in the Eastern Conference, and hope to stay there when they open a short trip Saturday against the New Jersey Nets at the IZOD Center. The Raptors will also visit Minnesota and are 10-23 away from Canada this season. They are currently 2 1/2 games ahead of Chicago, which has dropped 10 in a row to hamper its playoff chances. Toronto has lost six of seven and 10 of its last 12 games, including Friday's 115-89 setback versus the Oklahoma City Thunder at Air Canada Centre. Chris Bosh paced the Raptors with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Andrea Bargnani ended with 15 points for Toronto, which shot 43.8 percent from the field. "They came in acting like the better team and they carried themselves that way," Bosh said of the Thunder. "They were trying to run us out of our own building." Bargnani entered the game averaging 17.0 points and 6.2 rebounds over his last five games. Bosh was averaging 19.0 points and 8.7 rebounds through six games before Friday's loss. New Jersey has the worst record in the NBA at 7-61 and is trying desperately to avoid finishing with the worst record in NBA history, set by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers (9-73). The Nets have lost six in a row overall and 12 straight as the host. Tonight they'll open a four-game residency versus the Raptors, Heat, Kings and Pistons, and are 3-29 at the Meadowlands in 2009-10. In Wednesday's 108-97 road loss at Philadelphia, Chris Douglas-Roberts had 23 points off the bench and Kenyon Dooling chipped in 15 for New Jersey, which is winless in its last five road games and played without guard Devin Harris for the second straight contest due to an upper respiratory illness. "One thing about this team that has been consistent is they don't give up," Nets coach Kiki Vandeweghe said. "They keep coming back, they keep fighting. I thought that we just dug ourselves too big of a hole." Harris and forward Yi Jianlian (ankle sprain) are both probable for this evening's game. Toronto is aiming for a four-game sweep of the Nets tonight and is unbeaten in the previous four meetings. The Raptors have won three in a row at New Jersey.
<< Sliding Bulls try to snap skid in Philly
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bulls will take their untimely losing streak to the road tonight against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wachovia Center. Chicago has lost 10 straight and is winless in its last six road games. The Bulls lost
<< Ohio goes for second straight upset in clash with Tennessee
<< Northern Iowa seeks upset of top-seeded Kansas
<< Gaels and 'Cats clash in second round of NCAA Tournament
<< ODU challenges Baylor in second round of NCAA Tournament
Heat close out homestand vs. Bobcats >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Heat will try to avoid being swept in the season series against the Charlotte Bobcats when they close out a six-game homestand Saturday at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat have lost the first three meetings
Grizzlies, Warriors square off in Memphis >>
Celtics face tough test in Dallas >>
Nuggets take on Bucks at Pepsi Center >>
Jazz welcome Hornets to Salt Lake City >>
FOOTBALL TRASH TALKNFL Football Trash TalkTrash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing). Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion. Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site). Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com. Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season. The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation. What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill. Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies. But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply. In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
College Football Betting Tips From a ProWhile the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly. Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules. The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers. What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by. These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end. College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well. Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football. Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play. Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration. I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key. Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season. It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage. As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital. Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards. |
|
