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
Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jamal Crawford had 26 points off the bench, Gerald Wallace scored 20 and the Portland Trail Blazers continued to win against the Sacramento Kings, beating them 101-89 on Monday night. The Trail Blazers led by as many as 22 points and improved to 11-1 in their last 12 games against Sacramento.
The Kings fell to 3-6 so far during a stretch where they play 10 of their 12 games on the road.
The game was all but decided during three-plus minutes in the second quarter when the Blazers used a 13-0 run to take a 15-point lead.
"We did try to compete throughout the game but the second quarter got out of hand for us," said Sacramento coach Keith Smart. "We did a better job in the second half."
The Blazers also beat Sacramento on December 27, getting a 101-79 win in that one. On Monday, they never let their lead dip below double digits in the second half.
Game Notes
Knicks superstar Carmelo Anthony squared off against his former team for the first time since being traded to the Big Apple last February and struggled from a shooting standpoint (10-for-30), but scored a team-best 25 points and 10 rebounds and sent the game into overtime on a jumper at the end of regulation. Landry Fields and Iman Shumpert both netted 18 points and Amare Stoudemire had 12 and 11 boards for the Knicks, who went 0-4 on the homestand and sit third in the Atlantic Division behind the 76ers and Celtics.
"We're going to win a lot of games if we can keep this intensity and this pace," Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said. "Obviously, we still have some things to work through, but it's a step in the right direction."
"We had a chance to win, it's all about winning with me," Stoudemire said. "It's not about numbers, it's not about shots. It's just about winning. So we had a chance to win, we had momentum going, just couldn't pull it out."
Charlotte has also fallen on hard times as of late, having lost four straight and 10 of 11 games, including a 97-87 loss at New Jersey on Sunday in the finale of an unsuccessful three-game road trip.
<<
Points Warns Grizzlies From Rotation
<<
Mickelson Leaves Schedule Of Events
<<
Points Helps Hokies On League
Points Joins Memphis For Magic >>
Season Beats Augustin With Games >>
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