11/13/2008 - Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tracy McGrady scored 27 points -- including 15 in the third quarter -- leading the Houston Rockets to a 94-82 win over the Phoenix Suns in a game marred by a fracas toward the end of the third quarter.
With 27.6 seconds left in the third, McGrady hit a three-pointer to give the Rockets a commanding 74-55 advantage, but a melee broke out thanks to Phoenix's Matt Barnes and Houston's Rafer Alston.
To the right of McGrady, Barnes appeared to shove Alston, who was setting a pick. After the play, Alston came back and had some words for Barnes.
McGrady came in to defend his teammate and shoved Phoenix guard Steve Nash to the ground. Suns center Shaquille O'Neal immediately came in and pushed McGrady to the ground. Suns head coach Terry Porter was able to break up the fight afterwards, and no punches were thrown.
The Barnes push was apparently in retaliation for a screen McGrady had set earlier, which caused Nash to suffer a gash on his neck. Nash, O'Neal and McGrady all received technical fouls, while Alston and Barnes were ejected.
McGrady shot 11-of-18 from the floor and 4-for-5 from long range for the Rockets, who have won two of three. Yao Ming added 17 points and 15 rebounds, while Aaron Brooks finished with 19 points in the win.
O'Neal notched another milestone on his stellar career, passing John Havlicek for 10th on the all-time points list midway through the third quarter. With 18 points in the contest, O'Neal now has 26,402 for his career. He also added 13 rebounds and four blocks in the game.
Amare Stoudemire added 11 points and nine rebounds for the Suns, who snapped a two-game winning streak. Leandro Barbosa had 18 points, while Nash finished with 10 points in the loss. The Suns didn't register any fast break points in the game.
McGrady made a three-pointer to give the Rockets a 56-45 edge with 7:52 left in the third, and O'Neal passed Havlicek with an emphatic dunk to make it 56-49 with 6:30 on the clock. McGrady answered with another three, restoring a 10-point cushion for Houston.
McGrady's three-ball prior to the shoving match put Houston ahead 74-55 heading into the final quarter.
The Suns didn't get closer than 10 in the final period, and the Rockets cruised to the easy road victory.
Phoenix scored 10 of the game's first 12 points, as Nash and Barnes each had five in the early minutes. The Rockets answered with a 15-6 run to take a 17-16 lead, led by Alston's six points in the span of 53 seconds. The teams traded baskets for the rest of the quarter, and Houston led 23-22 after one.
Brooks' nine-foot jumper gave Houston its largest lead at 38-30 with 5:33 left in the half, and Artest hit an 18-footer at the buzzer to give the Rockets a 44-37 halftime advantage.
Game Notes
Lakers and Bucks Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has the most all-time points with 38,387. Former Hawks star Dominique Wilkins is ninth on the list with 26,668...Houston has won three of the last four meetings with the Suns...Alston finished with 15 points...Barnes had 11 points and seven rebounds.
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a solid note, plugging in a team-high 19 points to go with four assists in
fourth-ranked UCLA's 82-58 drubbing of the Prairie View Panthers in opening
round a
<< Barnes, Alston ejected in Suns-Rockets scuffle
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Phoenix's Matt Barnes and Houston's Rafer
Alston were ejected in the third quarter of Wednesday's matchup after the two
were involved in a melee that involved multiple players.
Houston's Tracy McGrady came down
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shootout as Boston clipped Chicago, 2-1, at the United Center.
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the backhand just
<< Lakers stay perfect with win in New Orleans
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kobe Bryant scored 11 of his 20 points in
the fourth quarter and hit the big shot from beyond the arc with 1:08
remaining, to stop a big New Orleans run and keep the Lakers unbeaten with a
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Vancouver, 2-1, at General Motors Place.
Paul Stastny registered a third-period
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Shanghai, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fourth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko
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Thursday to reach the semifinals at the $4.45 million Tennis Masters Cup.
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James and Cavs shoot for sixth straight win vs. Nuggets >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Cavaliers shoot for their sixth straight win
Thursday when they welcome the Denver Nuggets to Quicken Loans Arena.
The Cavs won their fifth straight game Tuesday when LeBron James scored 41
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Allen Iverson posted a terrific all-around effort in getting his first win in
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JUPITER, Fla. -- The Foorida Marlins are preparing for the likelihood that right-hander
Josh Johnson won't be ready when the season starts April 2.
Grapefruit League action starts Wednesday, but Johnson, penciled in as the No. 2 starter, hasn't even thrown off a mound at full speed since September. He's experienced some soreness in his right forearm.
MySportsbook.com have the Marlins listed with baseball betting lines at +800 to win the NL East this season .
''You guys know the math. If he's not on the hill then he becomes an opening day roster issue,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. ''We're borderline now.''
Johnson, who finished 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 2007, was supposed to throw on flat ground Saturday. That was canceled when he woke up with pain.
He played catch on Wednesday with no pain but felt discomfort in a throwing session on Thursday. He's expected to try again Sunday.
''Like we always said from the very beginning, we're going to take it easy on him,'' Gonzalez said. ''He didn't feel right, so we shut him down. We're going to take it back to step one and see where we're at.''
Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.
Right-hander Sergio Mitre, who missed most of last season with arm and shoulder problems, also is behind.
With Johnson's status doubtful, Gonzalez said right-hander Ricky Nolasco will stay in the rotation and no longer will be considered a candidate for closer.
Additional basbeall odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com
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Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.
“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.
“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).
Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.
Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.
The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.
Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game
Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.
Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.
Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”
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