Spurs resume road trip against Lakers
Basketball Betting Lines
02/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Antonio Spurs face the toughest test of their annual Rodeo Road Trip when they face the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center tonight.
Each year around this time the Spurs hit the road while the annual San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo takes over the AT&T Center.
Gregg Popovich's team set up temporary residence in Hollywood on Saturday and improved to 2-1 on its season-long eight-game trek when George Hill scored 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting, and the Spurs notched their 15th straight win over the Clippers with a 98-81 blowout win.
Tony Parker added 14 points and 14 assists for the Spurs, who have not lost to the Clippers since March 7, 2006. Tim Duncan and Matt Bonner each contributed 11 points in the resounding victory.
"It was important to come out and play better, and we did that," said Spurs forward Manu Ginobili. "George (Hill) has been a huge key for us; it's hard to imagine us not in the playoffs, so every win is important."
Historically, the long trips have actually been very successful for San Antonio, which has compiled a 42-17 mark in the Rodeo Road Trips since the club moved into the AT&T Center.
The Lakers, meanwhile, keep chugging along and improved to a Western Conference-best 39-13 on Saturday by dispatching the Trail Blazers, 99-82, in Portland on Saturday.
Ron Artest poured in 21 points and Lamar Odom contributed 10 points and tied a career-best with 22 rebounds, as the Lakers overcame the absence of Kobe Bryant to win in the Rose City for the first time in nearly five years.
The Lakers came into the game having lost nine in a row at the Rose Garden, but used a 47-30 rebounding advantage to end that skid. It was their first win in Portland since Feb. 23, 2005.
Bryant, who is averaging 28 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists this season, sat due to a sprained left ankle, ending a string of 235 consecutive games played. The 12-time All-Star last missed a game on March 7, 2007, due to a suspension.
"Kobe followed me in the coaches room and said 'I'm thinking about not playing' and I said 'it's OK if you don't,'" Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "I went back in and saw him 10 minutes later and he said 'yeah I think I should take it off' and so we did and went from there."
Shannon Brown tallied 19 points and Derek Fisher scored 14 for LA, which also received 13 points and eight boards from Pau Gasol. The Lakers won for the sixth time in eight games and did it after losing center Andrew Bynum due to a hip injury. He didn't play in the second half.
"It was a great effort, great teamwork and great outcome," Gasol said. "Obviously we don't like to see Kobe sitting out and he's been banged up, and then Andrew going down, we'll see what happens with them, but we reacted well, we just played hard and played together and the result was good, we won in a place that we haven't been able to play at all, or be successful at all."
Bryant, who hasn't missed consecutive contests since missing the first two games of the 2006-07 season with a knee injury, is listed as day-to-day while Bynum is doubtful for tonight's contest.
"I would say it (Kobe's injury status) is day-to-day," Jackson Said. "We have an opportunity here with two games before the All-Star break and there is some time there if he does need to take a longer time, we're trying to give him the liberty to do that."
The Lakers, who are a gaudy 24-4 at home, had an eight-game winning streak at Staples Center snapped in their last home encounter, a 126-113 setback to Denver on Friday. Meanwhile, San Antonio snapped a two-game skid to the Lakers with a 105-85 win in the Alamo City on Jan. 12.
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Betting the NFL preseason
Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
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