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02/07/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When LeBron James and Cleveland get together, it's always a little extra special.
James and the Miami Heat will finish a brief two-game homestand tonight by welcoming the Cavaliers and the new face of their franchise, Kyrie Irving, to the shores of Biscayne Bay.
Cleveland, of course, was the NBA home of James for the first seven years of his career before the All-Star "took his talents to South Beach" before last season. James was a two-time NBA MVP with the Cavs, a former scoring champion and led the team to the 2007 NBA Finals before the Cavs succumbed to the San Antonio Spurs.
The superstar led Miami to the NBA Finals last season but the Heat lost in six games to the Dallas Mavericks.
A favorite to win the championship again, the Heat have been streaking lately, winning seven of eight and compiling a solid 18-6 mark overall.
Most recently James had a game-high 30 points to go with nine rebounds as Miami outlasted the Toronto Raptors, 95-89, at AmericanAirlines Arena on Sunday.
"The Big Three" accounted for 67 of the team's 95 points as Dwyane Wade scored 25 points and Chris Bosh added 12 points and eight boards for the Heat, who have won two straight.
"We knew it was going to be one of those grind-out kind of games," Wade said. "We understand that a lot of teams do that when they play the Heat - come out on fire."
Miami, which is 11-2 at home, will embark on a six-game road trip after tonight's encounter.
The Cavs, meanwhile, are coming off one of their most impressive wins of the season, a 91-88 victory over the reigning NBA champion Mavericks on Saturday. Irving scored 20 points, including a tough reverse layup in traffic with 15.8 seconds remaining in that one.
After Irving's layup made it a three-point margin, Jason Terry missed a three- pointer from the top of the arc with 0.9 left. But following a review, the Mavericks got one final opportunity with 0.5 showing on the clock. Brandan Wright's desperation shot at the buzzer was off the mark.
"In that fourth quarter he was pretty fresh and we put the ball in his hands and let him make decisions," Cavs head coach Byron Scott said of Irving. "He's got the unique ability to get to the basket. And when he gets there he has a great way of finishing."
Anderson Varejao had a huge game with 17 points and 17 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who snapped a two-game skid. Antawn Jamison netted 19 points and pulled down nine rebounds.
The Heat and Cavs are meeting for the second of three matchups this season. Miami bested Cleveland in South Florida, 92-85, back on Jan. 24 behind Bosh's 35 points. In 2010-11, Miami took three of four from the Cavs.
<< Redd, Suns invade Milwaukee
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phoenix Suns look to continue their dominance over the
Milwaukee Bucks when the two clubs collide tonight at the Bradley Center.
The Suns won the first matchup of the season by a 109-93 score on Jan. 8 in
the deser
<< Love-less Wolves welcome Kings to Twin Cities
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Timberwolves will be without star forward
Kevin Love for the next two games because of a suspension and will move on
tonight versus the Sacramento Kings from the Target Center.
Love was slapped with
<< Durant leads Thunder into Golden State
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There are only two teams Kevin Durant is averaging 30-plus
points against in his career and the Golden State Warriors are one of them.
Durant and the NBA-leading Oklahoma City Thunder will resume a five-game road
trip to
<< Li retires, Jankovic withdraws in Paris
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French Open champion Li Na retired from her
first-round match Tuesday at the Open GDF Suez, while fourth-seeded Jelena
Jankovic withdrew from the tournament, citing a left thigh strain.
Bulgarian Tsvetana Pi
Panthers, Caps again do battle for first place >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Another battle for first place in the Southeast Division is
on tap tonight, as the Washington Capitals host the Florida Panthers at the
Verizon Center.
Florida enters tonight with a one-point lead over the Capitals for the
Pens close out road trip with test against Habs >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins have gone through a rough patch to
begin February, but they'll try to get back on track tonight when they visit
the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.
The Penguins ended January on an eight-game
Elliott returns to Ottawa as Blues visit Sens >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Ottawa Senators decided last season that they wanted to
upgrade their goaltending position. Now the man that they dealt away reappears
in town as an All-Star.
Brian Elliott makes his return to Scotiabank Place this eve
Surging Bolts host low-scoring Kings >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kings have struggled to score goals over the first two
games of their season-long road trip, failing to earn a point despite
excellent goaltending.
In fact, Lightning forward Martin St. Louis had more goals in his last
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.
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