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02/06/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Known to be a formidable foe on their own court, the Atlanta Hawks have stumbled a bit during a four-game homestand and look to restore order at Philips Arena tonight versus the Phoenix Suns.
The Hawks have lost the first two installments of the current homestand and recently suffered a 98-87 loss to Philadelphia Saturday night. Jeff Teague recorded a team-best 21 points and Ivan Johnson notched his first career double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds for Atlanta, which lost to Memphis in the opener of the residency and had won 12 of 15 games before the current two-game slide.
"We've just got to lock up and play defense," Johnson said of Atlanta's interior defense. "That's all it is, playing defense."
Usual Atlanta scorers Joe Johnson and Josh Smith were held to 16 and nine points, respectively, in a losing cause. Smith pulled down 10 rebounds as the Hawks fell to 8-3 as the host and sit two games behind Miami for the Southeast Division lead. Indiana will visit Philips Arena on Wednesday.
Atlanta hopes Johnson can crack the 20-point mark tonight since it's an impressive 11-1 when he hits that mark. The Hawks announced this weekend that forward Jason Collins is expected to miss two weeks with an elbow sprain and are already playing without forward Al Horford, who's out for at least a few months because of a pectoral tear. Atlanta hopes Zaza Pachulia can pick up his inside game while his teammates heal.
Phoenix has alternated wins and losses over its last six games, and will play two straight and five of the next six games on the road. It is 4-8 away from the Valley of the Sun this season.
The Suns recently handed the Charlotte Bobcats a 95-89 defeat on Saturday at home, receiving 17 points from Michael Redd in his first start of the season. Marcin Gortat ended with 12 points and 12 rebounds, while Robin Lopez contributed 11 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter for the Suns.
"I think we need to stay focused, we need to stay somewhat loose I think," Lopez said after helping Phoenix hand Charlotte its 11th straight loss. "I think tonight seemed like some of the guys were having fun and obviously we had some nice dunks. I think before the game the atmosphere was a little loose, we had fun out there."
Steve Nash chipped in 11 points and handed out 10 assists. Phoenix was without starting guard Jared Dudley (thigh), snapping his career-best consecutive games played streak at 206. It was the fourth-longest active streak in the NBA. Dudley is questionable for Monday's game.
Meanwhile, Gortat has double-doubles in 14 of his last 15 games and has pulled down 10-plus rebounds in 15 straight games -- four shy of Charles Barkley's 19-game run back in 1995-96.
The Suns will also visit Milwaukee before returning home to host Houston, and will hit the road again for a three-game trek against Sacramento, Golden State and Denver.
Phoenix swept a home-and-home series with the Hawks a season ago and has won 14 of the past 18 meetings between the teams. The Suns are 9-3 in their previous 12 visits to Atlanta.
<< Kobe leads Lakers into Philadelphia
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The superstars keep rolling into South Philly and Los
Angeles Lakers stud Kobe Bryant is next on the A-list when he leads his team
against the 76ers tonight from Wells Fargo Center.
Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, LeBron Jame
<< Clippers resume road trip in Orlando
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A possible trade destination for Dwight Howard is Los
Angeles with the revamped Clippers. For now, however, Howard is still property
of the Orlando Magic, who will open a three-game homestand tonight versus
the Clippers at Am
<< Pachuca erases three-goal deficit to stun Toluca
Toluca, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mauro Cejas converted a penalty kick in the
90th minute as Pachuca rallied from three goals behind to stun Toluca, 4-3, on
Sunday in Mexico's Clausura.
Toluca built a three-goal lead after 17 minutes on an
<< Howard-less Red Wings aim for win in Phoenix
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Not having their starting goaltender over the weekend did
little to help Detroit shake off its road issues. However, a trip to Phoenix
just might do the trick.
The Red Wings look to record a sweep of their season series wi
Raptors seek another win over Wizards >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards meet for the
second time in four nights this evening, as the two teams do battle at the
Verizon Center this evening.
These two bottom feeders met on Friday in Toronto and Leandro
Stoudemire to miss Monday's game after death of brother >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire will
miss Monday's home game against Utah after the death of his brother.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Stoudemire family for their loss," the
Knicks said on
O's deal Guthrie to Rox for Hammel and Lindstrom >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles have traded pitcher
Jeremy Guthrie to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for pitchers Jason Hammel
and Matt Lindstrom.
Guthrie was Baltimore's opening day starter in 2011 and pos
Lisicki withdraws from Paris event >>
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fifth seed Sabine Lisicki pulled out of this
week's WTA event in Paris, citing a viral illness.
Estonian Kaia Kanepi also pulled out of the Open GDF Suez tournament due to a
right shoulder injury. She title
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
The 2007 college football rules changes that were implemented to shorten games are now history. The NCAA rules committee did what they set out to do; games were cut by an average of 14 minutes per game last season. There were also, on average, 14 fewer plays per game. We’ll get into how that did (or didn’t) affect games in regards to the pointspread a bit later.
While the NCAA rules committee may have had the betterment of the game in mind, they'll now “turn back the clock” for next season. Two key rules have now been overturned by the NCAA committee for the 2007 season, something definitely for the better.
For those of you who may not remember what those rules actually were, let us refresh your memory.
1) The first one was actually starting the clock on a kickoff as soon as the kicker touched the ball rather than waiting until the returner touched it. The problem here was near the end of the half (or game), if the team leading was kicking off, they could milk the clock by intentionally running offsides and then re-kicking. They could run 10-15 seconds off the clock each play while taking just five-yard penalties each time. They could run the clock down and simply cause the half (or game) to end on a kickoff, keeping the opposing offense off the field. In 2007, the clock will now start when the returner touches the ball as it had before last season.
2) The second rule dealt with starting the clock after a change of online football betting possession rather than waiting until the ball was snapped. This took a lot of time off the clock throughout the game as teams changed possession, however it caused the most problems late in games (or halves). Rather than huddling up and calling a play, the offensive team would have to rush onto the field as the clock started. This was a definite disadvantage to a team that was trying to come from behind late in the game. This year the clock will start on a change of possession, after the ball is snapped.
How did those rules affect the college game last year and will it make a difference this year when it comes to the pointspread? We commonly heard two theories when it came to these changes. First, it would affect scoring negatively. Second, it would hurt favorites as they would have less time and fewer plays to cover the number.
Did the rules hurt scoring? Yes. It seemed obvious that shortening the game by what amounted to 14 plays would push scoring downward. That was the case last year. Of the 119 Division 1A teams, 69 squads scored fewer points in 2007 than they did in 2005. Just 48 teams had a higher PPG scoring average and two stayed the same. Almost 59 percent of the teams in college football last year had a lower PPG average than they did in 2005. Expect more scoring in 2007 as we revert back to the old rules.
Did the rules hinder favorites from covering the number in 2007? Not really. Last year the favorites posted an overall spread record of 336-350-16 (48.9 percent). The year before, favorites were 316-326-13 (49.2 percent). In 2004, the favorites were 316-339-2 (48.2 percent). In fact, college football favorites have been above 50 percent for the season just once in the last seven years (in 2003). Last year’s numbers fell right in line with where they have been historically.
How about big favorites? The rules must have hurt them? Maybe a little bit. Double-digit favorites last year came in at a 47.8 percent clip compare with an average of just over 50 percent over the last seven years. Since 1980, favorites of -10 or more have covered at exactly a 50 percent clip (measured over 6,716 games).
Even bigger favorites must have struggled? Not really. In fact, it was just the opposite. Favorites of three TD’s or more were 59-54-2 last year (52.2 percent). Since 2000, those same favorites (-21 or higher) hit at 51.3 percent and since 1990 came in a clip of 50.3 percent. Stepping it up a notch to four TD favorites or higher, we actually see they've covered at a much better rate last season than before. Last year, favorites of -28 or more were 31-21-1, or almost 60 percent. Historically, four-TD-or-higher favorites have come in at a 50.7 percent spot since 2000 and only 48.9 percent since 1990. The “perceived” problem with the favorites covering at a reduced rate really never came to fruition.
Bottom line is, there might be some more scoring in 2007, but no real revelations when it comes to finding any pointspread golden nuggets.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on college football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
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